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HEBREW
IN
DELl'GE STORY
CUNEIFORM
RESEARCHES
VOLUME
V-3
BY
ALBERT
T?
CLAY
NEW HAVEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON
MDCCCCXXII
COPYRIGHT 1922, BY
FOREWORD
The
*
title
of this
little
monograph
tells its
own
story, namely,
that an ancient (Eebrew)deluge tradition written in cuneiform is here presented. It is not a recent discovery, nor is it the first time that it has appeared in print. It was first published a number of
years ago, but owing to a faulty copy of the text originally presented, its importance has never been understood. This story of the deluge which had found its way into Babylonia,
conform largely to the Akkadian dialect, it came from the same source whence the Hebrew traditions came, namely from the people who lived in Amurru (Syria and Mesopotamia), called the Amorites. As was the case in pre-Mosaic days, and to a large extent in early Israel, when henotheism prevailed, "God" is the foremost deity. We learn from this tradition, and also from its redaction written centuries later, that a long famine preceded the deluge, which is not referred to in the Old Testament, that the famine had been sent because men had multiplied, and also because of their clamor, reminding us of the causes given for the deluge in the Old
where
it
was made
to
Testament.
The great importance of this inscription, which was copied about the time of Abraham from an older tablet, together with other facts here presented, is that it will require that the prevailing view be abandoned that the Hebrew traditions were borrowed from Babylonia. This involves many scholarly works written in recent decades upon the early history of Israel. It has been generally held that these stories are of Babylonian origin; that Canaan was a domain of Babylonian culture in the time of Moses
;
and that Israel had assimilated this foreign culture as well as its feathers and all. Not only is the Israelitish cult held religion,
' *
' '
to be dependent upon the Babylonian, but also many of the chief characters are said to have descended from Babylonian mythology.
In Germany where these views developed, some scholars have gone to great extremes only a change of names had taken place, and Marduk or Bel was transformed into Christ. In America a more moderate position has generally been accepted, in which
;
ov\\
V-3
the extreme views were toned down, and the Pan-Babylonian theory made more palatable. Nevertheless, it is generally held
in the time
;
Abraham, or in the Amarna Period, or at the time of the exile and that many of the characters had their origin in myth. Twelve years ago the writer took issue with this general position, holding that the traditions of the Hebrews were indigenous
in the land of the
Amorites
to the prevailing
Abraham, but upon an indigenous people, the antiquity of whose culture is as high as that known in Egypt or Babylonia and also
;
Euphrates valley came from this quarter, and brought with them their mainly He has also consistently maintained that such familiar culture. Biblical characters as the patriarchs and others, instead of being the creations of fiction writers, were historical personages. While the new point of view was accepted by many scholars, and the tremendous flow of Pan-Babylonian literature was suddenly and very materially reduced in volume, only a few of
written upon the subject acknowledged the gains that had been made, and reversed their positions. Even some scholars in their efforts to nullify the advances, instead of facing
those
the real issue in their reviews, dwelt upon and held up as proof of the writer's thesis some extraneous suggestions which had been intended for consideration in filling in the background of the two
who moved
who had
or
more millenniums of Amorite history prior to Abraham. The writer's thesis in brief is, that the Arabian origin of the Semites living in ancient Syria and Babylonia, including the
is
but that the antiquity of the Amorite civiliand also the assertion that the culture and very great religion of Israel were borrowed from Babylonia is without any foundation for they were indigenous and that the Semites who migrated to Babylonia with their culture were mainly from Amurru. In the judgment of the writer the material presented in this little monograph, as well as in his recently published Empire
Hebrews,
is
baseless
zation
FOREWORD
many views bearing upon the subject, as well as the abandonment of many others. Moreover, it also has bearings of a far-reaching character on many other Old Testament problems.
called "the land of the Amorites," it might be added, a geographical term which was used in ancient times for the great stretch of territory between Babylonia and the Mediterranean. By reason of its products and its position this land had been attractive to other peoples ever since one strove to obtain what the other possessed, resulting in almost innumerable invasions and conflicts taking place in this land. Within the historical period
Amurru,
is
we know
that the Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, and other peoples controlled this territory. It should be added that this country in turn
also prevailed at times over other lands, notably Babylonia and Egypt. In these pages we have evidence that one of its rulers
conquered Babylonia as early as 4000 B.C. This country has always represented ethnologically a great mixture. Linguistically, as far as is known, a Semitic language has always prevailed in this great stretch of territory. The Amorite or Hebrew language, being the oldest of which we have knowledge, was followed by the Aramaic, and later by the Arabic which now prevails. To what extent the Akkadian dialect was used in certain parts, and what script was employed in the early period, are a,s yet undetermined. Excavations at one or two well selected sites will throw light on this and many other questions, and furnish us with the material whereby we will be able to reconstruct
many
chapters of
its
early history.
It gives the writer great pleasure to inscribe this little contribution to his colleague and friend, Professor Charles Cutler Torrey,
these investigations but also in reading the manuscript has made a number of advance, suggestions as well as several identifications of roots which are
ALBERT T. CLAY.
NEW
HAVEN, CONN.,
19, 1922.
May
CONTENTS
Page I
II
11
33
III
Fragment
Babylonia
of the
Adapa Legend
39
IV
An
Amurm
and
42
APPENDIX
Transliterations and Translations of the Deluge Stories
A An Early Version of the Atra-hasis Epic B A Late Redaction of the Atra-hasis Epic
C
58 61
An
Assyrian Fragment
68
69
72 81
D A Deluge Story in Sumerian E The Deluge Story in the Gilgamesh Epic F A Fragment of a Deluge Story in Babylonian G Berossus' Version of the Atra-hasis Epic
Dynastic Lists of Early Babylonia Autographed Texts
Heliotype Reproductions
82
84
Plates I-IV
"
V- VII
-ancient
or Amorite Deluge Story; and that the so-called Atra-hasis Legend of the Assyrian period, which has also been translated by a number of scholars,3 is a late redaction of it.
Hebrew
Ea and
The
was put
incantation purposes. In the Appendix will be found the transliteration and translation of all the versions of this deluge story or
The ancient dated text stories, both cuneiform and Greek. designated as A, and the late redaction as B.
1
;
is
Scheil Becueil de Travaux 20 (1898) 55 ff ; Jensen KB VI 1 288 ff Dhonne Choix de Textes Eeligieux Assyro-Babyloniens 120 ff; Ungnad Altorientalische Texte vnd Bilder I, 57 f Rogers Cuneiform Parallels 104 ff; etc.
;
' '
Hilprecht
BE
;
CT
15, 49.
ff
Ibidem 128
Ser. D, 1 p. 44. Translated by Zimmern ZA 14, 277 ff Jensen VI 1 274 ff ; Dhonne Ungnad ATB I 61 ff ; Rogers Cuneiform Parallel* 113 ff and others.
;
KB
12
V-3
small fragment in the British Museum, ostensibly from a version of the Atra-hasis Epic, for it mentions the hero 's name, which was also written in the late period, furnishes us with the conversation between the
should be loaded. 4
This
is
designated
ago there was published a brief epitomized history of the world, written in Sumerian, beginning with the creation, followed by an account of the building of cities and the story of the This tablet was found during the excavations at Nippur deluge. The tablet was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania.
written after the Sumerian language had ceased to be spoken in its purity, some time between the middle of the First Dynasty of Baby5 lon and the second Nisin era, that is between 2300 and 1300 B. C.
i
A few years
vv\ t ^
Like the other legend written in the late period, it seems to have been used for incantation purposes. It is evidently based upon the same story as that from which the Gilgamesh Epic story has
descended, as
is
it.
The phrase in the Sumerian version "when for seven days and nights the flood overwhelms the land" (D, V: 3, 4) is paralleled in the Semitic by six days and nights the wind drives the deluge* ' ;
tempest overwhelms the land, when the seventh day arrives, the tempest subsides in the onslaught" (E, 128-130). The reference also to "the wall," when the hero was apprised of the impending deluge,
is
is
in both.
Further, the
replaced in the
Sumerian by
three elements, Zi (napishtim) "life," and u (urn] "day," to which the element suddu (requ) "to be distant" has been added.
It is not impossible that
three elements of the Sumerian name, is an abbreviated form of the original (see below). This version is designated as D.
The hero
late period
4 8
of the other and well known deluge story, which in the had been woven into the Gilgamesh Epic, is Atra-hasis,
Delitzsch Assyr. Les* p. 101; VI 1 254 ff; etc. See Poebel Historical and Grammatical Texts No. 1;
ff.
KB
ff;
and 66
13
is
but his
title,
which
better
known
6
in connection
is Um-napishtim, or Uta-napishtim. Besides these versions or fragments of versions there is also known a little fragment of thirteen partially preserved lines, written probably in the Cassite period (about 1400 B.C.), in which neither the name of a god nor that of the hero is preserved. 7 This
This
is
designated as F.
The deluge story handed down by Berossus, in which the hero is Xisuthros (2rovfy>os), which name represents a transposition of the elements of Atra-hasis, i. e., Hasis-atra, is still another version of the epic. 8 This is designated as G. The only dated version written in cuneiform is the one in the Pierpont Morgan Collection. It was copied from a still earlier inscription by a junior scribe named Azag-Aya, on the 28th day of Shebet, in the llth year of Ammi-zaduga (1966 B.C.), which
about 1300 years earlier than the time of the Library of Ashurbanipal (668-626 B.C.), to which the late redaction of it, now in the British Museum, belonged. The original from which the scribe copied had already been injured in the 12th line, which is indicated the word hibis " broken." How much earlier the
date
is
by
previous text was written, cannot be surmised; but there are reasons for believing it is a very ancient legend, probably written
two thousand years earlier (see below). Unfortunately, the tablet has been injured since
lost
it
was
first
published twenty-five years ago. Several small pieces have been from the surface of it. In the copy of the inscription, given in the Appendix, these parts are based upon the original copy made twenty-five years ago, and are indicated by small ink dots, easily
recognized.
See Haupt Nimrod-Epos 134 ff Delitzsch Ass. Les* 99 ff ; Textes Eeligieux Assyro-Babyloniens 100 ff Ungnad ATB I, 50 Parallels 90 ff.
; ;
KB
VI
ff.
228
ff
Dhorme
Rogers Cuneiform
V 1 p. 48. This fragment, if it actually came from Nippur, Hilprecht BE Ser. belongs to the Cassite period. This conclusion is based on a palaeographical and linguistic study of texts found at Nippur belonging to the Uamniurabi and the Cassite periods.
T
If the text came from Sippar, which is more likely, or from some other Semitic city, then it is possible that it was written at a somewhat earlier time.
1
See Zimmern
KAT
543
f.
14
V-3
The fragment shows that the tablet, of which it was a part, had eight columns. This can be determined from the shape of the fragment, the second column of which, not being complete, does not
reach the thickest part of the tablet, i.e., the middle. It can also be determined that it had eight columns from the number of lines. 9 Deducting those of the last column, namely 37, from the total number of the tablet, which is 439, leaves 402 which divided into the remaining seven columns, gives 57 or 58 for each. This can be verified by adding 37 to the nearly 20 preserved in the seventh
;
column, which equals 57. This fragment of the ancient version contains the opening lines of what was the second tablet of the series, which was entitled or known by the words I-nu-ma i-lu a-we-lum. This is an incomplete
"When God, man," etc. 10 It recalls the well known title Enuma Ann Erilil "When Anu, Enlil," the complete form of which is known: "When Anu, Enlil, and Ea, the great
sentence meaning
gods, entrusted the great laws of heaven," etc. Inuma ilu awelum were doubtless the initial words of the first tablet of the series.
What the content of the first tablet was cannot be surmised. Like the Sumerian text found at Nippur, and the first chapter of Genesis, it may have contained an account of the creation. This second tablet of the ancient version opens with a reference to the famine, as in the late redaction. In the latter we learn that the famine lasted six, probably seven years; and that it became so severe that human flesh was eaten. The Biblical story makes no reference to a famine preceding the deluge nor does the Gilgamesh Epic story yet in the light of the Atra-hasis Epic this would seem to be implied in the Gilgamesh story in the message which Ea tells Um-napishtim to give to the people, namely, "it will rain for
;
you abundance," after the ship is built. The famine in the ancient Atra-hasis version came after men began to multiply, and the land had become satiated "like a bull." This fact is hinted at in the late redaction where we have the line " [The people] have not become less they are more numerous than before" (B, III: 39). It was ordered that the fig tree be cut off,
;
**
This was determined when the tablet was originally published ; see Seheil BT 20 55 This was originally incorrectly read i-nu-ma sal-lu a-we-lum (see below).
ff .
15
that
Adad withhold
;
that the fields withhold their produce and that the womb be closed. The lines of the seventh column refer to the intervention of the god Ea, after Adad had opened the heavens and sent a deluge. The promise to preserve the seed of life is also referred
source
to,
work makes no reference to the flood. Whether the redactor included in his work also the account of the deluge, the main theme of the epic, can be determined only when other parts of his incantation are found. The
ancient version, however, enables us to ascertain where he obtained his account of the famine, which he used for incantation purposes,
in connection with sickness
as well as the entering into the ship. What is preserved of the redactor's
children.
The story
purpose.
That he modified, enlarged, and glossed it, is perfectly clear from the transliteration and translation of the two texts, the ancient and the redaction.
Complete translations of all the cuneiform deluge stories are given in the Appendix; but in order to have the related parts of the two texts of the Atra-hasis Epic together for the purpose of
comparison, the following selections are here given A, 1 of the former, and B, III 2 to 8 and 37 to 59 of the latter.
:
:
1 to 19
1-19.
[ri]-ig-[ma-si-i]n
bal-ti-a(l)
ma-tum
ir-ta-bi-is
ni-[suim]-ti-da
i-sa-ab-bu
[m]a-tum ki-ma
li-i
The land had become great; the people had multiplied. The land like a bull had become
satiated.
da-ar
5
[
assemblage
God was
is-te-me ri-gi-im-si-in
[iz]
-za-kar
He
tim
iq-ta-ab-ta ri-gi-im a-wi-lu-ti i-na hu-bu-ri-si-na iz-za-kar ma-siit-ta
16
V-3
Let the
the people be
10 [i-na sa-da]-ti-si-na
li-'-zu
sa-am-
mu
su
hi-bi-is
d
Adad
li-sa-aq-ti-il
-a [li]-il-li-ka
the sheep let Adad destroy. [The fountains of the deep] let not flow.
rise
not at the
[li-]-il-li-ik
sa-ru
li-e-ir-ri
15 [na] -ag-bi-ra
(-e) ia it-tu-
uk
[li-su]-ur eqlu is-bi-ki-su.
[li-ni-'] ir-ta
Let it drive mightily. Let the clouds be held back, that [Rain from the heav]ens pour not forth. Let the field withhold its fertility.
[Let a
sa
d Nisaba
the
2-8,
AND
37-59.
d[ir]
came troubled.
i-
sa-ba4a
d
[ni-si-tu]
[He spoke in] their assemblage to those untouched [by the desolations].
[Enlil) held [his] assembly. [He sa]id to the gods his children,
-su
Those
observing
the
clamor
of
men:
r]ig(ri-g[i)]-me-[si-n]a athu-[bu]-ri-si-na la
am
ta-a-(di-ir)dir
[izzakar- ina]
i-sa-ba-ta ni-si-tu
[Enlil]
held
his
assembly;
he
su
ra
na-ti
me-e-ta
as-ku-na-si-
17
[The
less;
people]
have
not
become
i-ta-at-ra
than before.
40
[eli]
rig-me-si-na at-ta-a-dir
[Concerning]
troubled.
i~
clamor I
am
[He said
tions
:
in]
those untouched
ti-ta
Let the
[cut
off.]
let
mu
[e]lis
d
wanting.
Adad
zu-un-na-su lu-sa-
Above,
let
Adad make
rain
qir
scarce.
45
me-
Below
lu i-na na-aq-bi
let (the fountain of the deep) be stopped that the flood rise not at the source.
[l]i-ni-
irtu sa dNisaba
musd-
fames lip-su-u
ugdre
meS
Let the field withhold its fertility. Let a change come over the bosom of Nisaba by night let the fields
;
seru pal-ku-u
lu-li-id
id-ra-nu
sam-mu
become white. Let the wide field bear weeds ( ?). Let her bosom revolt, that the plant come not forth, that the sheep become not pregnant.
Let calamity be placed upon the
people.
ku
[remu]
sir-ra
lu-ku-sur-ma ia u-se-sir
it
The
fig tree
was cut
[off]
for the
people.
sam-mu
In their
ing.
bellies,
the plant
was want-
e-lis
Adad
zu-un-na-su u-sa-qir
Above, Adad made scarce his rain. Below (the fountain of the deep) was stopped, that the flood rose
not at the source.
The
field
withheld
its fertility.
ip-su-u ugare
change came over the bosom of Nisaba; the fields by night became white.
18
V-3
The wide
field
bore weeds
?)
her
womb
revolted.
sam-mu
The plant came not forth; the sheep did not become pregnant.
is
The
critical historical
com-
paratively easy in this instance, because we have an original from which his work has descended. In the thirteen hundred years
copyists and redactors had doubtless taken part in transmitting the legend. How many times the text had been re-copied during the two or three thousand years of its history prior to
many
the time the present early version 'was inscribed, cannot be sur-
mised.
This old version contains absolutely nothing to suggest the idea that it had originally been written in Sumerian. On the contrary, Not only are it is clearly evident that it is of Amorite origin. the hero and the deities Amorite, but also certain words, which were not in current use in Akkadian.
One
of the
(line 4),
most striking Amorite words in the text is huburu which also is found in the redaction. This has been left
all
untranslated in
the translations
where the meaning "totalite" is is West Semitic, and means ''assemblage, association." 11 It is found also in the Creation Story, in ummu hubur ''mother of the
12 of gods, the title of Tiamat, "the assembly (or association)" mother of them all" (muallidat gimrisun), who was of West Semi-
The redactor, fearing the word would not be understood by his Assyrian readers, inserted a line which follows in his transcription, reading "[En] -HI established his assembly"; in which he used the regular Assyrian word for "assembly" (puhru). The root of it-ta-ah-da-ar (A, 4) is not found in Akkadian, but
it is
tic origin. 13
in
'
to be lacking;" in
which
" See notes beneath the transliteration in the Appendix. " King read it as a name ummu hubur; see Seven Tablets of Creation, p. 17. Zimmern translated ftubur "Tiefe, Totenreich" KAT* 642 f Jensen translated "Die Mutter des Nordens" KB VI 1, p. 7, and suggested other possibilities, as "^ecu/is, Getose, Siinde, Gesamtheit" pp. 308 and 541; Ungnad "Mutter gubur" ATB I 9; and Ebeling "Die Mutter der Tiefe" Altorientalische Texte und Untersuchungen II 4, p. 22.
;
11
See Clay
Amurru
the
Home
19
language the verbal forms occur also in the Niphal, see 2 Sam., 17 26, Isaiah 40 26, etc. Apparently the redactor did not understand the word, for he changed the sense, and wrote in his paraphrase "Concerning their clamor he was troubled" (ittadir) (B,
: :
III:
2).
The word
is
Amorite.
etc.
' '
mark,"
In Ethiopic and Aramaic, 'aqdb means " to observe, " to follow It is found in Hebrew with the meaning
Akkadian;
it
at the heel.
The word ma-si-it-ta "desolations" (A, 8) is Hebrew; see Job 30 3 Psalm 74 3, etc. In the redaction, the word used is This also is Hebrew (see Psalm 88: 13). ni-si-tu. A very striking and important proof that the original story was Amorite or Hebrew is to be seen in the use of the word te-i-na (A, 9), which is the Hebrew word for "fig tree." This the early redactors had allowed to stand, but a later scribe, feeling that this would not be understood in his country where the fig was practically unknown, replaced the Hebrew word te-i-na with ti-ta, In Babylonian and Assyrian the Babylonian word for fig tree. literature the word titu or tittu is little more than known. In Hebrew literature, as in the present text, the word "fig tree" is synonymous with "prosperity." It was not in Babylonia nor in Assyria that. man "dwelt under" and ate "every one of his fig tree," but in Syria (see Mic. 4:4; Is. 36: 16, etc.). Owing to the injury of the tablet it is not possible to say that su
: ; : * * ' '
is
suffix,
but the
word su which does occur in the redactor's paraphrase, is another Hebrew word meaning "flock, sheep," which is frequently found
Old Testament. In li-sa-aq-ti-il (A, 11) is to be seen an Amorite word which had not been used in Akkadian. Whether the redactor understood its meaning, we do not know; but he changed the wording; and he also condensed the six lines of the original which follow (A, 12 to 16) into one line (see B, II: 30 and III: 45). Not only do we find lisaqtil instead of lusaqtil, but note also limtanm, listarriq, This probably is lisaznin, and perhaps also Herri and imassid. a peculiarity of the early Amorite language in which the legend had been written.
in the
20
V-3
In line 12 the word hibis indicates that a previous tablet had been injured. The words [i]a [li]-il-li-ka " let not flow " are
preserved at the end of the line. Probably the words e-na-ta "fountains of the deep," as in Genesis 7 11, stood in the ta-ma-ta original, and an Akkadian scribe who lived in Babylonia, a land where springs are unknown, being in doubt as to the reading, wrote
:
hibis,
"injured."
li-e-ir-ri
The root of
in the
(A, 15)
is
doubtless to be found in
Hebrew
to throw, hurl."
current use in Babylonia. The root of li-im-ta-an-m-ma (A, 16), is evidently the familiar Hebrew mana' "to withhold, to hold back," used in connection with rain, Amos 4: 7; of "showers," Jer. 3: 3, etc., but the root
was not in current use in Babylonia. If we had no other data to show that Nisaba (A, 19), the goddess of fertility, is Amorite, this passage would be sufficient; but we have. Naturally no one would question that Adad is the Amorite Hadad. And there can be no doubt, but that Ea also had his origin
in the West. 15
These words are all found in the first nineteen lines of the text. Naturally the words currently used in Babylonia, as well as in Amurru, are not discussed. It is to be noted that the hero, Atra16 The fact that the determinative hasis, bears an Amorite name.
"Scholars generally agree that Adad (dIM) and Nisaba are West Semitic. On Ea as an Amorite god, see Chiera Lists of Personal Names p. 39 f. and Clay Empire of the Amorites p. 175. u This name is " " the generally considered to be two words meaning exceedingly wise, ' While the Babylonians used it as synonymous with these words, it was very wise one. nevertheless a personal name, and this does not seem to have been its original meaning. Names compounded with Atar and Attar, also written Atra, Atram, with and without the determination, are numerous among West Semitic names, cf. Atar-bi'di (-idri, -gabri, The Baby-s&ri, -nhri, -hammu, -qamu, etc.), see Tallqvist APN 252 and NBN 231. lonians in making use of these West Semitic legends, having their own word atru, meaning "surplus," "abundant," made an etymological play upon the name, as was done so frequently in the O. T., interpreting it in their own legends as being synonymous with ' ' very wise, " as is done in the Etana and Adapu Epics. It will be noticed that in the Adapa fragment discussed below, the word At-ra-ha-si-sa is not written grammatically as two words in the sentence, but is looked upon as a name, synonymous with the idea "clever one." The same is true in the Etana Legend (SB VI 1 106: 39), where A-tarfya-si-sa is in apposition with ad-mu si-ih-ru, which is in the nominative case.
; ' ' '
21
for
it
man
is
placed before
it
impossible to regard
especially in this early period, makes here as being an epithet for a hero bear-
These facts and others which follow, especially those in confor the chief deity's name in this legend, prove conclusively that this was originally a Hebrew or
name
llu
"God"
Amorite Deluge Story. If this is an Amorite legend we would expect to find also in the work of the late redactor or glossarist, Amorite words which had not been adopted by the Semitic Babylonians and in this we are not disappointed. A comparison of the two texts shows how the
;
redactor inserted glosses or parallel phrases in connection with huburisina, iqtabta, etc., and as we already have seen, how he replaced the Hebrew teina with the Babylonian titu, and used the Hebrew word su flock. The following, however, will show that all the Hebrew or Amorite words had not been eliminated in the
1 1
' '
thirteen hundred years which intervened between the dates the two tablets were written.
when
The word
root sapan
zi-ba-ni-it
' '
"treasures" (B, 1 33), is Amorite from the This root is not in current use
:
in Akkadian.
is
pat-te (B, I: 36) do not mean "aussitot," nor the reading a-na kurmate "for food" correct; but pat-te is the Hebrew word pat in the plural, meaning "morsels;" and the sentence reads * they prepare the child for morsels. This being
' ' '
a word foreign to the Akkadians, the redactor wrote the gloss which precedes, "They prepare the daughter for a meal." The ma at the beginning of B, 1 43 ma-bel mdti has been left wholly unaccounted for in all the translations. This is the Hebrew
:
waw
conjunctive.
is is
The word i-ri-ha-ma (B. 11:50) The word 'aruhah "meal, food,"
Old Testament, see Jer. 40
:
5, etc.
The word la-su (B, II: 56) has been construed by all the translators as the negative particle, three of whom, recognizing the difficulty, added a question mark to their conjectural translation of it; but la-su is the Amorite inseparable preposition with the
22
V-3
pronominal suffix, meaning "to him." The redactor glossed la-su with the Akkadian word it-ti-su which precedes. 14 In the passage which is exactly parallel (B, III: 20), it is omitted. The word i-sa-ba-ta (B. Ill: 3), translated as if Akkadian from the root sabatu "to take," makes an insurmountable difficulty;
but considering that it is from the Hebrew root asdb to grieve, 14 see Isaiah 54: 6; I Chron. 4: 10, etc., the difficulty disappears. The word ni-si-tu "desolation" (B, 111:3), as referred to above in connection with ma-si-it-ta of the ancient version, is Amorite. The me which follows Atra-hasis (B, III: 29) is not an enclitic or emphatic particle attached to that name, but the Hebrew waw consecutive. 14 The fact that me is written instead of ma may probably be due to compensative lengthening as in Hebrew. There are other Amorite words in the late text which are discussed in the foot notes of the transliteration and translation. The study of the late redaction also shows that it goes back to a Hebrew or Amorite original. In no other way can the Hebrew words found in its composition be explained. The legend had been Akkadianized before the early text was written, in 1966 B. C. In the long period which preceded it had suffered many changes when redactors had made the original Amorite text conform to the dialect in current use in Babylonia
' l
' ' ;
'
fortunately, as we have seen, all the words peculiar to the West had not been eliminated. see how this process went on in the
We
writing of personal names of those coming fresh from the West .in the Hammurabi period; for example, names like Ishbi-Urra,
Ishme-Dagan etc., had become Akkadianized, but on the arrival from the West of others bearing those names, we find that they were written Yashbi-Urra, Yashme-Dagan, etc. Even the position of the verbs in the sentence had suffered changes for while they
;
are frequently found at the beginning, as in Hebrew, they are also found placed at the end, or indifferently in the sentence, as is the case in Akkadian.
The story of the deluge, as contained in the Gilgamesh Epic, certain scholars maintain, embraces elements of more than one
tradition.
14
is
it
23
nevertheless also refers to Atra-hasis. This has scholars to identify him with Um-napishtim, while that, as has already been noted, in this late story hasis is used as a synonym for "a very wise man," several of the epics. However, it seems to the
is
prompted some
others consider
the
as
is
situation entirely misunderstood. As stated above (foot note The passage, "the wise one, 16) Atra-hasis is a personal name. " Atra-hasis (B, III 17) could hardly be translated the wise one,
' '
:
' ' ;
and
it
ogists got their idea for their play upon the name. In all the versions except the Sumerian the hero's name is Atra-hasis.
After the flood he was given a title. Although not fully understood it is Um(oT Uta)-napishtim ruqim (rigam, also ina ruqi), which in the Sumerian paraphrase is written Zi-u-suddu. This He who lengthened the days title has been variously translated " He who made life of days, etc. of life, Certainly this is long not a personal name, which fact the Gilgamesh Story fully recognizes. When Ea (in the Gilgamesh Story E, 196) tells the gods how the hero learned that the flood would occur, he does not say, I made Um-napishtim see a dream for at that time he had not been thus designated; but Ea says "I made Atra-hasis see a dream. That was his name he had not yet earned the title. In this is no confusion of names, as some have inferred, but short, an exact statement. And the use of the title instead of the name in the Sumerian paraphrase is a proof that it is borrowed from the
' *
:
* '
' '
' '
' '
' '
Semitic legend. The writer has previously maintained, simply on a basis of the personal names found in the Gilgamesh Epic story, that it is largely from a Hebrew or Amorite original. Let us inquire whether a study of the language used in its composition will betray
its
original source.
first
The
is
Hebrew word
to be noted in the
nisirtu "secret," (E, 9). This word, as far as was not in current use in Akkadian but the writer,
;
meaning "hidden thing" from this root is known in the Old Testament (see Isaiah 48: 6, etc.). The word for part of the boat called la-an (E, 60), which was
24
V-3
the "hull" or "bottom," is Hebrew from the root lun "to lodge," doubtless, because there is where the people lodged. The word used for "the roof" of the boat, namely sa-a-si
Amorite (see note in Appendix). The word qiru, used for the outside wall of the ship (E, 66), is not Akkadian, but it is the common word for "wall" in Hebrew. The word sussullu "basket" (E, 68) was not used in Akkadian but it is found in Hebrew, see Jer. 6 9. The root of u-pa-az-zi-ru (E, 70) is the common Hebrew basar "to gather, gather in, enclose." The root of the word e-si-en-si "I loaded it" (E, 81) is found in In Isaiah all the Semitic languages except the Akkadian dialect. 33: 20 we have reference to "a tent that shall not be moved," i. e., "loaded."
(E, 60),
is
:
be seen the common Hebrew word pehah which was not in current use in Akkadian. "governor," The word ha-aia-al-ti has been translated "army" (E, 131), but this is Amorite it is not found in Akkadian. Where one text reads u-mu (E, 133) the variant text reads ta-ma-ta. The former word has been translated "day," and the latter "sea." Certainly umu is the Hebrew yam "sea," as the context and the variant clearly show. The word na-a-si (E, 142) is not Akkadian it is from the Hebrew root nus "to escape." There are other Hebrew words discussed in the notes beneath the translations, some of which are tentatively offered, while others are reasonably certain. There are also glosses. Doubtless, further study will reveal more which were rarely, if ever, used in Akkadian. If the Um-napishtim story was originally written in Sumerian, or even in Akkadian, certainly it becomes necessary to explain how these foreign Hebrew words, even in this late version of the Assyrian period, came to be used in the Epic. It is the writer 's opinion that no other conclusion can be arrived at but that this deluge story, which probably embraces some elements indigenous to Babylonia, was mainly an Amorite legend which the Semites from Amurru brought with them from the West. Since we know that other peoples of the early period had deluge
In
25
would be precarious to say that the Sumerians and the Babylonians did not have their own, especially as this land must have suffered even more than others, and because this legend refers to Shurippak. But with this exception there is nothing in the Gilgamesh Epic story that can be said to be distinctively Babylonian. Even the word translated "reed hut" is very proba17 And on the other hand, there bly an archaic West Semitic word. as we have seen, a number of Hebrew words used in the Epic, are, which were not current in Babylonia; which together with other facts show that the story is mainly Amorite. Moreover, it is not at all improbable that the reference to Dilmun in the Sumerian
stories, it
to be identified with the region of the Persian Gulf, is also a part of the local coloring the legend received after it was brought into Babylonia.
version,
if
that
name
is
has been shown that the Sumerian story, whose hero was named Zi-u-suddu, is connected with the Um-napishtim story and that it was probably written at a time when Sumerian as a spoken language had survived in a more or less corrupt style, some time between 2300 and 1300 B. C., 18 it seems, in light of the above, until other evidence is forthcoming, the only conclusion at which we can arrive is that it must be regarded as a short paraphrase of the Amorite story, which may include some features of a Sumerian tradition. It has even taken over the Akkadian word puhru; as we have seen, had displaced the Amorite huburu. which, The fact that Sumerian was used for official communications, for
Since
it
legal documents, as well as for literature in general, in certain Babylonian cities in the latter half of the third millennium B. C.,
possible to understand why such very ancient stories, which had been brought into Babylonia from Amurru, should also
it
makes
Nearly every inscription from Nipof this period is written in Sumerian. It was the legal and pur In some of the neighboring cities it was not liturgical language.
so; for example, Sippara; whence probably came the ancient version of the Amorite Atra-hasis Epic. This city was preSemitic. eminently
17
26
It has
V-3
thirteen partially preserved lines, versity of Pennsylvania, was originally written in Sumerian, and that it was brought to Canaan at the time Abraham "left his home
now
on the Euphrates and moved westward." But the few lines of this supposed Sumerian story are full of Hebrew words which were not in current use in Akkadian. The word ub-bu-ku "overthrow" (F, 5) has not as yet been found in either language but it is from the very common Hebrew root meaning "to overthrow," which root, excepting two substantives, was not in current use in Akkadian.
;
Instead of reading lu-pu-ut-tu hu-ru-su "destruction, annihilation" (F, 5), the present writer prefers to read lu-pu-ut-tu hu-ru-su
1 '
' '
latter in
Hebrew
means "to be
In other words, the hero silent, to be speechless." is told of the proposed flood, to keep silence, and to build a ship. The word ga-be-e "high" or "height" (F, 7) is found in
but not in Akkadian. Instead of ba-bil (F, 8) the reading is ma-sum-sa "and its name;" this contains the Amorite waw conjunctive. Certainly it must be admitted that it seems strange that the Akkadian translator of this supposed Sumerian story should have used so many Hebrew words which were not in current use in
;
Akkadian.
fully appreciates the fact that at any time cuneiform inscriptions may be found in Babylonia which will contain examples
The writer
other than those already known; because Semites in nearly all periods into this land Western nevertheless, it will be possible to continue to maintain that they were not in current use in the Akkadian dialect. Nearly all scholars who have published discussions of the Biblical deluge traditions in recent years have conceded that they are of Babylonian origin. This view can be said to have been very generally accepted by scholars. Some hold that these stories were
of these
of the flow of
;
Hebrew words
brought from Babylonia to Canaan by Abraham others say that they were transmitted to the West in the Amarna period, but the
;
27
great majority of scholars hold that knowledge of them was obtained in Babylonia at the time of the exile. Two arguments
are generally advanced for this position the one is, the great age of Babylonian civilization, which involved the idea that civilization in the West had only developed a little before 2000 B. C., by Arabs
;
from Arabia; and the other argument is based on the frequency of inundations in Babylonia, which gave rise to these so-called
nature myths. In 1909 the present writer endeavored to show that the Babylonian origin of the Biblical deluge stories was without any foundation
but that they were indigenous to the West and that, on the other hand, the Babylonian story of the deluge, as preserved in the Gilgamesh Epic, contained West-Semitic elements; showing that no other conclusion could be arrived at, but that extensive
; ;
had been felt from Amurru. 19 The arguments for these views were based almost entirely upon such literary evidence as the names of the gods, who are mentioned in the story, as being
influences
Amorite, as well as the name of the pilot of the ship, BuzurAmurru. 20 In the above discussion additional proof is offered from a linguistic point of view for this thesis. These discoveries show that there is no need to find the origin
of the Biblical stories in Babylonia, because of the theory that the West in the early period did not have an indigenous literature,
and did not have a civilization. The present version, and other data presented in the discussion in another chapter, forever disprove this hypothesis and require its abandonment. Moreover, it is necessary that a general readjustment be made of views advanced by Pan-Babylonists, and Pan-Egypto-Babylonists, whose positions have been based upon the supposed Arabic origin of the Semites in Amurru; and upon the supposedly late rise and development of civilization in that land. The discoveries made since 1909, when the present writer first contested this position, clearly show that we have reasons for believing that the civilization of the Western Semites synchronizes with the earliest that has been found in Babylonia and
;
w
10
Clay
On
the
Amurru the Home of the Northern Semites 71 name Buzur-Amurru see Clay Amurru 82.
ff.
28
V-3
Egypt. More recently the writer has shown also that the theory must be abandoned that the so-called Egypto-Babylonian culture brought forth the earliest civilization in the thousand years between four thousand and three thousand B. C., while all the rest of the world continued to live in stone age barbarism or savagery; 21 for there is every reason to believe that in Amurru, with its natural agricultural districts over wide-spread areas such as those about Hit, Aleppo, Haran, etc., with its wonderfully wooded districts, as in the Lebanon region, with its mines and natural products, which in ancient times, as at present; have been so attractive for other peoples; and also in Elam, with its valleys so well adapted for agriculture, with its hills for grazing, its quarries for stone, its
its
forests for
man
labor, it was possible for him to control the annual floods in And further, if the Egyptian alluvial Babylonia, and dwell there. chronology of the Berlin School is correct, there is every reason
and
which greatly antedated the Egyptian for, as will be seen, we now have additional discoveries that prove beyond doubt that civilization in Syria has as great an antiquity as in Babylonia. The importance of this will be readily recognized, in connection with the discovery of the Hebrew or Amorite Deluge Legend in that it furnishes us with the background for the civilization to which it belonged; and it also
to believe that in Syria there
22
;
was a
civilization
makes
appear more reasonable that the Biblical legends of the could be indigenous. deluge There is another very important fact which the old version has
it
revealed, and that is the occurrence of I-lu "God," in the title of the series, as well as in the text, for the foremost deity's name.
This
and and
title was originally incorrectly read Inuma sallu awelum, since translated many times "when a man lay down to sleep
' ' ;
but I-lu
perfectly clear on the tablet, in the legend's context in the colophon. Ilu "God" here takes the place of in the
is
AN
early Semitic and Sumerian texts, and of Ann of later texts. The in the early period in nearly all such connections ideogram has been generally read Ann or Ana.
AN
* Breasted Scientific Monthly 1919, p. 577. 22 Clay Journal of the American Oriental Society 41 241
ff.
29
that the god whose name was written with the was the highest of the gods; who had created sign "god," mankind; and who was worshipped as the supreme ruler of the universe. In the text here published, we learn that the Western Semites in this early period called the Godhead I-lu, or El "God," the same as in the Old Testament; and there can be little doubt
It is well
known
AN
but that in the early period, the Akkadians did the same. It is not impossible that the Sumerians, before they came to Babylonia, called their foremost deity Ana or Anna; but there To the writer it seems more probable that is no proof for this. had conquered the land, and created or furnished the after they people with the cuneiform syllabary, they wrote AN, which in their
language meant "heaven," as well as dingir "god," for the name of the most high god of the Semites, namely Ilu. Certainly in the early syllabaries (see below), AN represented Ilu. In time AN became Semitized into Anu, in the same way that En-lil "lord of
the
influence was so extensively felt in the 23 Morethe origin of the Erechian Anu. know for a certainty that while Anu of Erech later genover, we erally replaced Ilu, this fact was fully appreciated by later generations when they used Anu and Antu with the generic sense of
is
It is also not
Anu
or
Anu(m),
also written
Annum, and in Sumerian texts An and An-na, and the fact that Anu had the meaning "god," which was pointed out many years ago, gives us reasons why the Erechian Anu "the creator," "the father of the gods," was never displaced as the head of the pantheon. And it seems that these reasons satisfactorily account
for the as
is
AN had "Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic"; where, except A-num, all the gods, even the heroes, have the determinative. This can only mean that Anu at that time meant "god." And although the Babylonian word or name Anu "god" had its origin in the Amorite word or name Ilu, the deity
even after the ideogram
the case in the
* See Clay Empire of the Amorites, 168
f.
30
V-3
designated by these words or names in time became quite distinct. This becomes apparent especially in periods when fresh migrations from the homeland take place. The reading Anu for in the initial line of the Hammurabi
AN
24 When being very generally adopted but it is a mistake. Anu of Erech is referred to in the Code, his name is written 25 Anum(-num), whereas the chief deity's name, "the father of the gods," who together with Ellil, as Hammurabi says, "raised the towers of Babylon," is written Ilu(AN) 26 This clear-cut distinction must be recognized. Moreover, the present text containing
Code
is
ilu,
Western Semites, as well as the early Akkadians, used the word ilu "God" to represent their creator and supreme ruler. Naturally, this fully confirms the impression we get from the Old
Testament, that the Semites, in the land called Amurru by the Babylonians, which included Aram, used the word il(u) or el(u) to designate their most high god, their El Elyon. 27 Ea was not a Sumerian god, but the second in the Amorite His name was written phonetically triad, Ilu, Ea and Adad. d and ideographically d En-Ki "lord of the land," because he E-a, was Ba'al, so well known to us in the inscriptions of the West, including the Old Testament. While Ilu was supreme, Ea was
the lord of the earth, of the rivers, of the springs, of the wells, and of the waters beneath the earth. It was only after the Semites
had carried his worship to the southern part of the great alluvium, where a temple was erected for him at Eridu on the sea, that his cult took on the peculiar Babylonian aspect with which we
are so familiar.
14 Scheil originally read ilu. He was followed by Peiser, Winckler, Pinches, and others ; but since Harper read Anu, not a few have followed this reading. Throughout the Code, ilu is used for "the god." Did the codifier in the body of the laws avoid the use of
Marduk
or Shamash, the
deities
his code
where these
44: 51.
See 1:1;
Hehn Die
BibliscJie
und
die
Baby-
31
fertility
Ea having
But
naturally became in Eridu the god of the deep and of the rivers. this is a local and a late conception of Ea, the great Amorite Ba' al. Simply because excavations have been conducted in Babylonia
where the almost imperishable clay tablets have been recovered in such masses, and in Amurru little or nothing of this kind has as yet been done, where also the perishable papyrus and
is responsible that exists at present not only of the god for the faulty conception Ea, but of the entire historical situation prior to the time of
skin
Hammurabi. " Adad, the god of the elements, usually called the storm god/' At a very is Hadad of Amurru, the third of the early triad. early time his worship was brought into Babylonia. It is generally conceded that he is an Amorite god, and that he had been adopted as a member of the Babylonian pantheon. The ideogram d IM read Adad, as is well known, stands for other names of the w Mur, Sham, etc. storm-god, as Ramman, Amurru, Mar such a god as Adad. His At Nippur, the foremost deity was name was written ideographically dEn-Lil, "the lord of the storm which in time was used as his name, and even pronounced It is possible that the Sumerians, who at an early time Ellil. took possession of this city, also had a storm god but this cannot be proved. The writer feels that d En-Lil was originally Adad. In the Gilgamesh Epic, he instead of Adad is the destructive god in other words he had supplanted him after Nippur became the supreme city in the land. En-lil also displaced Ea, when he became the bel matati, "lord of the lands ;" and thereafter he took the place of Ea as the second god in the triad; so that instead of Ilu, Ea, and Adad, the triad became Ilu (AN), Enlil, and Ea. Later, when Babylon became the centre of the hegemony, Enlil was displaced by Marduk, the god of that city, who himself became the Ba'al,
,
' ' ; ;
or Bel.
This forcibly recalls the fact that a large name syllabary found at Nippur, belonging to the early period, contains several groups
**
Names 39
f.
32
V-3
of Semitic names compounded with those of Amorite gods. One of these groups, occurring several times, contains AN, E-a and dIM, and the other contains dDagan, Ishtar and Gaga; while AEnlil, in
whose school of scribes the tablet was written, occurs only twice among its several hundred names. 28 We have knowledge of certain syllabaries having been repeated for millenniums; and it is not impossible that this particular one was originally written prior to the time when Nippur's god became "the lord of lands"; in other words, prior to the time when the foremost triad became AN, Enlil, and Ea. Certainly we can understand why Ea, who figures in the early myths and legends in a much higher position and role than the storm-god Adad (or Enlil), originally followed
the foremost deity. Yes, even in the West Semitic creation myth, Anu and Ea are the creators, while the storm-god, who is there called Marduk, fights the great Tiamat. And we can also understand how, subsequent to the time when Nippur's Enlil became
" lord of the lands," that god came to take the place of Ea next to the most high god. Moreover, it seems that conclusive proof of this position is to be found in the "Explanatory Lists of Gods." In the most ancient (II R 59), Ilu (AN) is followed by Ea (and his consort), and Enlil (and his consort). In the later and fuller lists, which were also written in an early period, this order is maintained, but Anu, and a consort Antu who was created by the force of
analogy, take the place of Ilu. In consideration of all available data, it is reasonable to conjecture that this Amorite deluge story, which preserves the names of the foremost original triad, goes back to a time as early as
4000 B. C.
n
ANCIENT FRAGMENT OF THE ETANA LEGEND
Through the discovery of dynastic lists and other historical data the great antiquity of Babylonian civilization is now fully determined. now have lists of rulers which carry us back to the
We
Instead of the earliest period known reprethe beginning of civilization, there is every reason to senting believe that millenniums of history, not of savagery, but of civilized man, precede what we now know as the earliest and when systefifth
millennium B. C.
matic excavations are conducted in Central Asia, in Asia Minor, and in Syria, we shall have data whereby the gap between prehistoric man of millenniums ago and man of the earliest historic period will be considerably reduced. In the Appendix will be found the reconstructed list of ruling
and kings. Excluding the two earliest dynasties, to the reigns of which fabulous numbers of years are given, we find ourcities
see below.)
selves at a period about 4000 B. C. (Others make the date earlier, Etana belongs to the first of the two dynasties which
fifth
millennium B. C.
eight names of the earliest dynasty, namely that of Kish, are fragmentary, or are wanting. The first five that are fully preserved are Semitic; and several of these, at least, are unquestionably West Semitic. The fourth ruler, who has been heretofore regarded as mythical, is Etana; he is now restored to
first
The
his place as
ruler.
understood that in certain Aryan lands gods, scholars maintain that the same has occurred with the Semites. They have said that Nimrod, the patriarchs,
It is generally
became men.
Many
and many other Biblical characters were originally deities, that Etana, Lugal Marda, Tammuz, Gilgamesh and many other Babylonian rulers had also descended from the realms of mythology. Fortunately clay tablets, which are not so perishable as skins or papyrus, have recently furnished us with the material whereby some of the so-called deities are restored to their places in dynastic
34
V-3
and whereby it is possible to assert that it cannot be proved that gods ever became mortals in the Semitic world. The order must be exactly reversed. While anthropomorphic ideas are attributed to the deities, we have no instance of a Semitic god becoming a man. This fragment of an old version of the Etana Legend was written about 2000 years earlier than the fragments found in the Library
lists,
of Ashurbanipal (668-626 B. C.). It has also been previously 1 It contains the opening and the closing lines of a large published. tablet, which had three columns on the obverse and three on the
seems to the writer that the complete tablet must have Among the fragments of the Epic written in the Assyrian period there is one which duplicates
reverse.
It
partially some lines of the present text. An outline of the legend 2 as now known from the different fragments follows The deity had deserted the city; and in consequence, anarchy
:
and confusion prevailed, and productivity ceased; the sheep no longer bore young. The gods desiring to bring this state to an end designated Ishtar to go to the rescue and Etana was installed as king. About this time an Eagle and a Serpent formed an alliance to carry on the work of destruction. Each, accompanied by a brood, went to the mountain for prey each killed an animal and then shared them with their broods. Although warned not to do so by one of her offspring, the Eagle pounced upon and devoured the young of the Serpent. The Serpent appealed to Shamash, the god of justice, and was advised to conceal herself in the carcass of a bull that they had slain, and when the Eagle swooped down upon it, to seize and tear her to pieces. This was done, and the Eagle was left to die in a hole in the mountain. The Eagle in turn appealed to Shamash, promising eternal obedience if rescued. Daily Etana also pleaded with Shamash to show him the "plant of
; ; ;
Scheil Eecueil de Travaux 23, 18 ff. transliteration and translation on the basis of the same text was published by Jensen VI 1 100 ff, and 581 ff. See also Frank Studien zur Babylonischen Religion 105 ff.
A KB
George Smith Chaldean Genesis 138 ff published the first three known fragments. E. J. Harper published seven other fragments, BA II 441 ff., and 503 ff. Jastrow BA III 379 ff, and JAOS 30, 101 ff, published two others. See also Jensen VI 1 100 ff. For a discussion of all the fragments, see Jastrow JAOS 30, 101 ff.
KB
II
35
birth," that fertility might be restored. The god told him to seek the hole in the mountain into which the Eagle had been thrown, and there the plant would be shown him. Upon his arrival at the hole the Eagle appealed to Etana for help, promising in return to fly with him to the dwelling of the gods, probably with the idea
Etana mounted upon the back of the Eagle, and together they reached the heaven of Anu. The Eagle urged Etana to proceed to the dwelling of Ishtar, the planet Venus
of obtaining immortality.
;
but after a flight of six hours, either through exhaustion or the intervention of the goddess, a precipitous descent to the earth was made. The fragmentary character of the end of the legend leaves us in doubt whether or not it proved fatal. There can be little question but that many details of the legend are still wanting,
as seems to be indicated by the art of the seal cylinders, depicting the ascent. 3
of the beginning of the present text points to its being the opening part of probably the second tablet of the series which contained the legend. The closing lines refer to the resus-
The content
Eagle at the mountain hole with the assistance Unfortunately the tablet did not contain a colophon. The fact that the last column is not completely filled out, would indicate that it was copied from a still earlier inscription. While it is not impossible that the legend was originally written in
citation of the
of Etana.
Sumerian, there
this
is
was the case. The early dynastic lists of Babylonia, given in the Appendix, show that Etana, "the shepherd," who lived in the fifth millennium B. C., was an usurper, and became the twelfth ruler of the first 4 In the omen text disdynasty of Kish, who "ruled all lands."
cussed below, he
is
called
is
* '
' '
king.
West Semitic, as are several of the first Kish dynasty, which have been preserved.
In this fragment of the early version, besides the god Anu, only the Anunnaki and the Sibitu are mentioned. In the late version many other Semitic gods are referred to, some of whom may have
*
*
See Ward The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, 142 See Poebel Historical Texts p. 88.
ff.
36
V-3
been introduced in the later period. An interesting parallel to this is the adding of Ishtar's name as one of the gods of Eanna in the late redaction of the Gilgamesh Epic, whereas in the early 5 version, the temple Eanna is the dwelling place of Ami alone. It is not impossible that the Etana Legend has an historical background, as in the case of the Lugal Marda, the Gilgamesh,
and other epics (see below). As in the case of the so-called "Zu bird," the Eagle and the Serpent may represent two powers which were ravaging the lands, probably at a time when a famine prevailed; and upon their having difficulties between themselves, Etana aided the Eagle. His aspirations in connection with ruling all lands, whereby he would become immortal, having been urged and abetted by the Eagle, received a set-back which allegorically The power represented is told in the story of his ascent to heaven.
;
probably to be identified with the "Zu bird" (see below), to whom the Serpent refers as a "worker of evil" in his address to the god Shamash. 6 The fact that the Serpent is told to take the road to the mountains," and that Etana found the Eagle in a hole in the mountain, would show that the scene was not laid in Babylonia, but in a mountainous district, probably the West. The symbol of an invader of the following dynasty, whose name was written Nin-Gish-Zidda in Sumerian, was the Serpent. The well-known goblet of Gudea with the caduceus, which in a later
by the Eagle
is
* '
period was dedicated to this deified king the bas-relief depicting this demi-god, who with heads of serpents protruding from his shoulders is leading Gudea, as well as the seal of this great patesi, 7 clearly indicate that the serpent was the emblem of Nin-GishZidda. It is also not improbable that the title usumgal, which can be translated "the great serpent," as well as "the great one," so frequently used in connection with titles of Tammuz, the son
;
of Nin-Gish-Zidda, also refers to the Serpent. The worship of the Serpent is very general in Elam, Egypt, Phoenicia, Hatti, Persia, India, China, and Greece. Whether in
8
KB
Of. Jastrow-Clay
An
:
p. 64:
58 with
VI
.
1,
128
37
etc.
Cf VI 1, 104 13. This being true, the reference to Zu, the invader, being an anachronism, was added in some late redaction. T See Heuzey EA 5, 137, and Meyer Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien Taf. VII.
KB
II
37
the early period it was so universal, or whether for the ancient was merely local, period additional information will show that it
cannot be surmised. It would, therefore, seem precarious to say more than that Tammuz and his father seem to have been identified with a state the emblem of which was probably the Serpent (siru). In this connection we must not lose sight of the Dragon Legend (CT 13 33). It was after "the cities sighed" for relief when
d was the Serpent (siru)" was the oppressor, that asked to stir up a cloud, a storm and a tempest, and by slaying the Dragon "to deliver the broad land." No one seems to hold the view that the name Tamtu is Sumerian and the writer feels that
"Tamtu
SUH
he has already shown there can be no question but that it is West Semitic (see Amurru 51ff). The Eagle probably also represented a power in the West. The transliteration and translation of the
ancient fragment of the Etana Epic follow :
si-ki-it-tim
ku-ub-sum me-a-nu
H
10
ur-da-am
i-si-i
45
sa-am-na-am wa-ar-fya-am u-si-te-ga su-ut-ta-as-su e-ru-u ma-fyi-ir u-ku-ul-ta-am ki-ma ni-si-im na-e-ri
50
at-ta
38
V-3
mi-,
.-ti
ka-ti-im-ti
fate,
Sat down, took counsel concerning the land. Builders of the quarters, the authors of nature, The Igigi, being against the people,
5 Determined
people.
they shut up the people in the dwellings. was not bound, a crown And a sceptre of lapislazuli had not been possessed. They had not built together a shrine.
established not a king In that time( ?) a headgear
They
The
As
sceptre, crown, headgear, and staff, in former times, before Anu in the heavens
is
was placed.
There
no counsel for
its
people.
The kingship has gone down from the heavens. had .... 45 Took care on the seventh On the eighth month he proceeded to his hole. The eagle having received food, like a roaring lion Became strong. The eagle opened his mouth, and to Etana spoke to him 50 'My friend, truly we are friends, I and thou. Command, and when thou hast cured me, I will kill.' Etana opened his mouth, and to the eagle spoke to him
; :
.
covered
Ill
and IV, of the fourteenth century B. C. 3 The present text is from a fragment which contains the first part of the legend. A brief outline of the story follows, as it has been recovered up to the
present.
Adapa, a semi-divine seer, who was priest of the temple of Ea, in Eridu, had been granted wisdom by his father, the god Ea, but not eternal life. One day, in exercising one of the functions
of his office, namely fishing in the Persian Gulf, a sudden squall from the south upset his boat. Angered at this, he broke the wings of the south wind so that for seven days it did not blow
the cooling breezes of the sea over the land. In consequence Adapa was summoned by the god Anu to appear before him in
heaven.
Thereupon
his father
Ea
told
him how
to excite the
sympathy
of Gish-Zidda and
Tammuz, two
chapter), who stood at the portals of heaven. Being cautioned by his father not to partake of the food and the drink that would
PSBA
16,
274 f
and
Z^.8743, published
by Jensen
KB
VI
1,
XVII
ff .
were originally published by Scheil, Becueti de Travava in Gunkel Schopfung und Chaos 420 ff, These were utilized by Jensen KB VI 1, 92 ff, as offered several improved readings. well as by others. For other translations see Ungnad ATE I 34 ff ; Barton Archaeology
* This text, and 20 (1898), 127 ff.
its translation
ff and Rogers Cuneiform Parallels 67 ff. See Winckler and Abel Thontafelfund von El-Amarna No. 240; and Schroeder VS, For the transliteration and translation see Knudtzon Die El-Amarna Tafeln No. 12, 194. 356, p. 964 ff.
40
V-3
whereby eternal
life
would have been gained. Scholars have pointed out certain resemblances of the story and some even have contended that to that of Adam in Genesis
;
the
Adapa Legend
the origin of the Hebrew narrative. They "food of life" as corresponding to the "tree of
is
Adam, had gained knowledge that was of divinity, etc. However, it was through
like
God, that
Adam
ate of the
while
Adapa
owing
to his obedi-
ence to his father's counsel in not eating of it. Others have contended that Adapa and Adam are different forms of the same name while still others hold that the name Adapa is the same as
;
4 Alaparos (which name they change to read Adaparos), the second of the antediluvian kings handed down by Berossus.
" a man of Eridu the text informs us, namely a ruler, a sage, ; and that when excavations reveal the history of that city we shall become familiar with the history of his reign, when he will take
' ' ' < ' '
is
his place with Etana, Gilgamesh, and others in the list of kings or patesis. Owing to the reference to the deified Gish-Zidda and
Tammuz
view
lived
in the legend, although it does not necessarily follow, in of additions made in the later redactions, the time Adapa
been subsequent to the early Erech dynasty. a transliteration and a translation of the fragment Following now in the Pierpont Morgan Library Collection.
is
. . .
may have
is-tum
ki-ma qi-bit ilu .... luuz-na rapastum(-tum) u-sak-lil-su u-su-rat mdti mu-lu-mu a-na su-a-tu ni-me-qa iddin-su napistam(-tam) daritam(-tam)
qi-bit-su
ul
iddin-su
5 ina u-me-su-ma ina sa-na-a-ti si-na-a-ti ab-kal-lum
dE-a
mar &lEridu
ab-kal-lum qi-bit-su
4
ma-am-man
ul u-sam-sak
The name Adapa is frequently written A -da-pad. For Alaparoe Adapa see Zimmern KAT3 522; King Schweioh Lectures 1916 144; Langdon Sumerian Epic p. 64; Ungnad ATE I 39 note 1. This is a West Semitic name, and is equivalent to Alap-Uru,
,
perhaps
"Ox
of the god
Uru";
5,
"Calf of Marduk"
BA VI
cf. Im-me-ir-i-li "Lamb of God," A-ga-al-Marduk 98; see Clay Empire of the Amorites p. 78.
41
10
it-ti
it-ti
nu-fya-tim-me nu-fya-tim-mu-ta ip-pu-us & > nu-fya-tim-me sa 'Eridu Ki-Min. u me-e sa 6lEridu u-mi-sam-ma ip-pu-us a-ka-la
.
[in]
15
&l
Eridu ip-pu-us
&l
Eridu
is-sa-ar
20 [sa-a-ru i]-zi-qan-ni-ma
. .
His word
like the
command
;
of the god
intelligence he perfected in him, the image of the land Unto him he gave wisdom eternal life he did not grant him. 5 In those days, in those years, the sage, the man of Eridu,
Wide
Ea, made him like a riddi among men ; A sage, whose command no one could oppose
The mighty
Anunaki,
is
he
Blameless, clean of hands, anointer, observer of laws. 10 With the bakers, he does the baking
;
With the bakers of Eridu, he does the baking. The food and water of Eridu daily he provides. With his clean hands he sets (binds) the table;
And without him, the table is not cleared (loosened). 15 The ship he steers he does the fishing and hunting for Eridu. Then Adapa, the Erechian,
;
in retiring ( ?) upon the bed, the bolting of Eridu gives attention to. Daily In the pure rampart of Kar-Nannar, he embarked upon the sailing ship.
20 The wind blew, and his ship glided along. With the oar he steered his ship. upon the wide sea.
Li.
3.
Li 17.
The text contains the sign mu, as Scheil originally published, and not kul. If kul is correct, it is a mistake of the scribe. For the restoration cf. A-da-pa ma-ar dEa. KB VI 1, 94 :11.
IV
"personification of some solar deity," but a human being, an invader, who lived in an inaccessible distant mountain.
We
of the land
learn that Lugal Marda, "a shepherd," came to the rescue by some kind of strategy, succeeded in bringing back
; * '
:
the "tablets of destiny"; and in restoring Enlil to his position. The Enlil of For this act he is in time credited with the title
la Kullab, Lugal Marda," which was adopted as the name of a star. Kullab was a part of Erech, and is doubtless where he erected his It was to the "distant mountain Sabu" that Lugal palace.
1
Ungnad makes
p. 23)
;
at 3927 B.C.
the date of the beginning of the third known dynasty, that of I Ur, (ZDMG 1917, 166). Meissner put it at about 3900 B.C. (Babylonien und
Assyrien
**
(MVAG
1921 61)
Fragments 11).
Kawlinson, 46, 1:27.
IV
43
2
went, in pursuit of Zu. Sabu was in the Lebanon range. In other words, the enemy Zu represented an Amorite or West Semitic power, which doubtless had invaded Babylonia. 8 There can be little doubt but that the so-called "Legend of the Zu bird"
Marda
was intended to commemorate the overthrow of this power by Lugal Marda. The writer has no desire to identify Zu with the power whose emblem was the eagle, but this identification is not improbable; in which case we would naturally think of the state represented by that bird in the Etana Legend (see above), and
probably also in the fable concerning Gilgamesh (see below). Years ago it was conjectured that the name Nimrod was from 4 More recently another has sugNu-Marad, "man of Marad."
gested that the original form of that name was En-Marad, standing for Lugal-Marad "King of Marad." 5 It seems that he may have
become
En Marad "High-priest of Marad," since we know that Gilgamesh was En Kullab as well as king. We must, however,
keep in mind that he was not a native of Babylonia for he was a gurum kurra "offspring of the mountains." If this "shepherd" king, who apparently was the most powerful ruler of this period, should prove to be Nimrod, his Old Testament title, "the mighty hunter," or "ensnarer," may have reference to the strategy he employed in overthrowing the so-called "Zu bird." Lugal Marda is credited with having ruled longer than any other of his dynasty. The fragment of an historical text recently published shows that he conquered Halma (Aleppo) and Tidnum in the West; and it can be assumed that he ruled the West land. This would give sufficient reason why his name should have been
preserved in the traditions of the West. Nimrod is the only name of a Babylonian ruler of the early period, prior to Amraphel, that
is
or that of his ancestors, may originally have been in that land, for his wife's name, although written in Sumerian Nin-Sun, was
'Jensen
KB
VI
1, p.
578;
Zimmern
KAT
CT
p. 574,
note
3.
A
4
city
Su was
On Su
ff.,
geographical names,
Delitzsch
Wo
Amorites
p. 177.
Wo lag das Parodies, p. 220. Kraeling, in Prince's article, JAOS 41, 201.
Delitzsch
44
V-3
name Semak-Ur (Semachoros), a name like the Old Testament Semak-Jahu (Semachiah). 6 d Nin-Sun, who became the mother of
Gilgamesh (see below), bears the
title
gamesh Epic.
This
title
has been translated by Since the ideogram Sun in her Sumerian name means rimtu " Beloved of the fortified 'beloved," would not rimtu sa supuri " Beloved of Belit," be somewhat more city," and Rimat-Belit
1
of the queen of the great Lugal Marda some scholars ''the wild cow of the stall."
appropriate as translations for the title and name of the queen mother who dwelt in her magnificent palace, which had probably been built by her former husband, the powerful king Lugal Marda. Tammuz followed Lugal Marda as king of Erech. It would seem that Babylonia had suffered another upheaval when NinGish-Zidda, his father, had "ravaged the land"; which we learn from an omen (see below). Besides this fact the latter is known only as a deity, with his habitat at Lagash. Doubtless he had been king of that city. Tammuz was not originally "the personification of the son of the springtime," or even "the personification of some kind of wood," as has been said, but, as the new dynastic list shows, he was a human being, and the fourth king of this early Erech
dynasty.
Ishtar
8
In Babylonia the legends and hymns concerning Tammuz and are exceedingly numerous. Here they are identified especially with the city of Erech, where he ruled. From the many
inscriptions relating to the cult
we
women mourned
his death.
From
The cuneiform
8 *
p. 88.
712.
IV
45
Certainly Zertu seems to be Semitic. The name Tammuz was reproduced by two Sumerian words or ideograms, which reprefaithful sented the pronunciation, namely, Dumu-Zi, meaning son"; but this is no proof that Tammuz was a Sumerian. In fact the meaning of the ideograms speaks against the possibility of his " faithful son" would not be appropriate for being a Sumerian;
"
a personal name, but rather as an epithet. His father's name, Nin-Gish-Zidda, is also in a Sumerian dress but this very probably also represents a Semitic name. This suggestion is based on the connection of his son Tammuz with the West, and on the name of his wife Zertu. His having ruled at Lagash would fully account for his name being written in Sumerian. He was an invader, a fact, as already mentioned, which we learn from the omen
;
texts.
As is well known, there are many myths and legends that have been handed down concerning Tammuz (who is also called Adonis, etc.) and Ashirta (also called Astarte, Ashtaroth, Ashtar, Ishtar,
Venus, Aphrodite, etc.). The cult bearing especially upon the death and resurrection of Tammuz typified the decay of vegetation which was followed by the long dry summer, and also the revivifying of the earth in the spring. While the legends are exceedingly widespread, they are especially identified with Syria. Even in the Book of Ezekiel we learn that women sat in the temple weeping for Tammuz (8:14). Traces of the cult are handed down
it is
also referred to
by Mandaic and
Syriac writers of the post Biblical period. In Syria they cluster especially about a vale near Aphaca, at present represented by
modern 'Afqa, at the head of the wild romantic wooded gorge of the Adonis river, in the Lebanon region, midway between Byblos and Ba 'albek. Here tradition says the mangled body of the hunter
the
Tammuz was buried. Here are to be found many ruined monuments of his worship, one of which is a great temple of Astarte which Constantine destroyed. Another of the memorials that have kept the legends alive is now to be seen at Ghineh, where Tamreliefs of Tammuz and Ashirta are carved upon the rocks. muz is there portrayed with a spear awaiting the wild boar by which he was slain, while Ashirta, who mourned for him, and who, the
46
V-3
myth
death,
descended to the underworld to deliver him from seated near by in a sorrowful attitude.
Ha-A, whence Tammuz came, and probably also his has not been located; 10 but connections of Tammuz with father, Syria, and especially the passage concerning him in a lamentation at the sacred cedar, a distant place where he hymn, which reads born" (or " where his mother bore him"), point to the West as was his birthplace. 11 Extant tradition identifies him especially with the
The
city,
' '
Gebail, the ancient Byblos. Not a few passages, however, in the cuneiform inscriptions, show that he was especially worship12 Certainly it would seem that his conped at Hallab (Aleppo).
modern
that he
was a
Semite, rather than a Sumerian. Moreover, it can be gathered from several passages that he very probably met a premature death by drowning, while associating, in the Lebanon region, with
contemporary Ashirta, who was called Ishtar in Babylonia. She seems to have been a "Queen of Sheba" or a "Cleopatra" of this early era, with her seat of government at Hallab.
his
already mentioned, the chief seat of the cult of Ashirta, the Ashtoreth of the Old Testament, or Ishtar, in Babylonia was at Erech but Hallab seems to have been her home. In one of these The queen Babylonian lamentation hymns we have this passage of Erech for her husband; the queen of Hallab for her husband (wails)." This and many other couplets referring to Ishtar or to Tammuz and Ishtar show that these two cities were intimately identified with each other. One of the earliest religious texts at present known tells us that this goddess had a shrine at Nippur and that she was from the land of Hallab. 13 In the Gilgamesh Epic when she proposes to Gilgamesh, king of Erech, she says: "Come, Gilgamesh, be thou my spouse. Present me with thy offspring be thou my husband, let me be thy wife and I will set thee in a chariot, etc. Into our house, under the fragrance of the cedar tree, enter. And when thou enterest our house [they shall
;
* '
:
As
10
p. 83.
CT
15, 26:5.
Tradition in the
"Scheil
BA
8, 162, 4-5;
CT
13:6.
HGT
26: 19-20.
IV
47
place thee upon] a throne; they shall kiss thy feet.'* Gilgamesh, in refusing her advances, asked her what she had done with her
husband Tammuz, and her other husbands; whereupon she told the god Anu that Gilgamesh had upbraided her on account of her evil deeds and she asked for vengeance. While a temple at Adab was dedicated to Ishtar, as the brick stamp of Naram-Sin shows, and she was worshipped in many cities in Babylonia and Assyria, Erech and Hallab stand out as the two It seems to the cities with which she was peculiarly associated. writer that Hallab is prominently mentioned in these cult tablets
;
she to
home of her worship. And it is probable whom Hammurabi refers in one of the titles he
is
the
gives himself, namely, migir telUum musaklil terUum sa Hallab "the beloved of the exalted one, who put into execution the laws
Since Hammurabi was an Amorite, it is not improbof Aleppo. able that the body of his Code mainly came from that city. Certainly, there is sufficient evidence to show that the Baby' '
lonians not only looked upon her as having been a mortal, but also upon the West as having been her habitat. Moreover, since
queen Nin-Sun, Nin-Gish-Zidda and his queen Zertu, Tammuz, Gilgamesh, and Humbaba (see below), in other words, all the kings and queens of this period, were worshipped as deities, some of whom became very important gods, the sug-
his
gestion that Ashirta, called Ishtar in Babylonia, the wife of Tammuz, had also been a mortal, seems to the writer to be perfectly reasonable. Certainly there is no available evidence to disprove
her name does not appear in the nomenclature prior to this period. That the worship of this deified woman and her consort should have become so widespread was doubtless due not only to the nature of the cult, which has its parallels now in harvest festivals, but also to the peculiarity of it which involved disgracethis
;
appealed to the sensuality of man. Throughout Syria, including Phoenicia and Canaan, the unspeakable abominations of her licentious cult took deep root. As far as we know at
ful rites that
present,
its
influence
48
V-3
which prompted an Assyriologist that " Erech was essentially a Semitic city." 14 long ago to say In short, in consideration of all that we know of Erech 's contact with the West, where doubtless Western Semites settled at a much
Erech.
It is doubtless this fact
earlier period than in Babylonia, it is not difficult to understand how her cult migrated to the great alluvium from that region,
and especially as
of
this
"
Tammuz.
Gilgamesh was connected, not with the family of Tammuz, but with that of the latter 's predecessor. He was the son of RimatBelit, the wife of Lugal Marda, and of the high priest of Kullab, a part of Erech, perhaps the Semitic quarter of that city. There is a fable that has been handed down by Aelian that ought not to be lost sight of in this connection. 15 From it we gather that Gilgamos (Gilgamesh) was born in secret, and was thrown from
fall
the acropolis where his mother was imprisoned, and that in his an eagle caught him and carried him to a garden whose keeper
reared him.
We
are led in this connection to inquire what is the why is the eagle here introduced 1 Has power represented by the eagle in the
also with the
Zu bird
in the
Lugal
seen,
Tammuz and
his
father were
identified
Gifford Lectures 1903, p. 342. The fable of Aelian (de Natura Animaliwm 12, 21) reads as follows: It is characteristic of animals also to love human beings. For example, an eagle brought up a baby. I wish to tell the whole story, that it may bear witness to my statement. When Semachoros (Seuechoros) reigned over the Babylonians, the Chaldaeans said that the son of his daughter would take the kingdom away from the grandfather. He was alarmed at this,
if I may speak somewhat jocularly, he became an Acrisius to the girl, for he guarded her very strenuously. But, without his knowledge for fate was stronger than the Babylonian the girl was made a mother by a man of low degree, and bore a child. Her
and
guards, in fear of the king, threw it from the acropolis ; for it was there that the aforesaid girl was imprisoned. Well, an eagle very quickly saw the child's fall, and before it was dashed upon the earth got underneath it and received it upon his back. Taking The caretaker of the place, seeing the it to a garden, he set it down very cautiously.
pretty child, was fond of it and reared it; it was called Gilgamos, and reigned over the Babylonians. If anybody thinks this a fable, I admit that on testing it I thought lightly of its validity myself. But I am told that Achaemenes, the Persian, from whom the Persian nobility descends, was an eagle's nursling. (Translated from the Greek by Prof.
A. M. Harmon.)
IV
49
with the emblem of the serpent. Are we to understand that perhaps Gilgamesh, the son of the former queen, Rimat-Belit, when born, perhaps during the reign of Tammuz, was secretly carried away and reared in the land which the eagle represents? When Rimat-Belit said to her son concerning Engidu, "Some one, Gilgamesh, who like thee in the field was born, and the mountain has reared, thou wilt see", 10 does this imply such an order of events? What was the affinity that was responsible for Gil-
We
words:
"Ere thou
earnest
down from
the
mountain,
dream."
When
' *
the
expedition to the
my
West was being planned, Engidu said Know, when I moved about with the cattle in the mountains,
:
measure
' '
Humbaba
;
lived.
He knew
the paths
through the cedar forest" and it seems reasonable to ask whether the nation, whence he came, is not to be identified with the power
eagle.
are led to believe from the Epic of Gilgamesh that in the early part .of his career, Erech was subservient to another throne, and we inquire whether it can be ascertained what power had humiliated Babylonia at this time.
We
Epic has not been regarded as has been looked upon as a mythical personage who played a part in a nature myth which had been woven into the exploits of Gilgamesh. Engidu is another mythical character who has been regarded as "a type of primaeval man." The stronghold of Humbaba, with whom Gilgamesh fought, as related in the epic, has in the past generally been located in Elam; and it has also been generally held that his name is Elamitic. These conclusions have not rested upon the fact that cedar forests were known to have existed in Elam; for all the numerous references to cedars in the inscriptions have been understood to refer to the
in the
historical.
He
Lebanon and Amanus ranges. The conclusions that Humbaba was Elamitic, and that the scenes took place in Elam rested solely upon the slight resemblance of "See Jastrow-Clay TOR IV 3, 62: 17.
50
V-3
the name Humbaba to that of the well known Elamite god Humba, whose name was variously written Humman, Humba, Humban, Umman, Umba, etc. The identification of Humbaba with this deity was also one of the reasons why emphasis was placed upon
in part astral,
the G-ilgamesh Epic being based upon a foundation of myth, being and in part a nature myth. comparison of the
of the
Legend
;
ing the building of the temple at Hierapolis ued to be identified with the Elamite god. 17
the description of the cedars seemed to suggest the districts in the West; nevertheless the forests were considered to be in Elam. 18 In the light of what follows, however, this must be
a word which has been read It occurs several times, and has been generally regarded hu-pi-pi. to be the name of an animal it has even been translated 'hyena. n9 The same word occurs as a personal name in the temple administrative archives of the early period. This word, strange to say, has also been regarded as an Elamitic loan-word, but on the basis of the reduplication of the final consonant. 20
is
' ' ;
A few years ago an Amorite Name-Syllabary was published which had been excavated by Haynes at Nippur, and which contained the personal name Hu-pi-pi. 21 More recently there was discovered in the Yale tablet of the old Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh Epic, that the familiar name Humbaba, or Hubaba,
written exactly the same, namely Hu-PI-PI. Since the sign PI has also the value wa, and wa and ba in this period interchange, the correct reading of the word in the omen texts, and of
is
the personal name, was not Hu-pi-pi, but it was this reproduced the pronunciation of Hu-ba-ba. It followed from this discovery that the name
that of Hobab, the father-in-law of
17
Hu-wa-wa; and
M
19
p. 77.
p. 151,
note
2.
of Personal
Names
p. 122.
IV
since
it
51
unquestionably was Amorite or West Semitic, there could be little doubt but that it was the same as Kombabos of Lucian. 22 Furthermore, it naturally followed that the reference to the conflict between Gilgamesh of Erech and Hubaba or Humbaba of the West was an allusion to an important historical event of the 23 Additional light is now thrown upon the situation early period. from a passage in an omen text in the Pierpont Morgan Collection
(see below), which fully substantiates the inferences which the writer made.
It is
which omens refer, were originally supplied by actual events that followed the appearance of the prognosticating signs which the priests had observed. Following are a few of the omens
to
referring to historical events "If the foetus is male and female (a monstrosity), it is the omen of Bau-ellit, who ruled the land; the king's country will be seized." 24 It is now definitely known that this woman, Bau-ellit,
:
than eleven historical omens are known which bear upon Sargon's reign. In one of them the expression "he possessed no foe nor rival," meaning that he had subdued the neighboring
less
No
by many discoveries. There are two well known omens relating to Naram-Sin, one referring to his overthrow of Apirak, and the other to his conquest of Magan. The former is summarized in the eighteenth line in the Morgan text, which reads: "If the tiram is like a woolen rope, it is the omen of Naram-Sin, who overthrew Apirak in arms." This is fully confirmed by the chronicles of Babylonian kings. 20 Another omen referring to the founder of a dynasty reads: "If a sheep gives birth to an ox, etc., it is the omen of Ishbi-Urra, who did not have a rival." 26 We now have historical data to show
lands,
is
M It
is
's
Humbaba, who may have built or rebuilt the temple. " Empire of the Amorites p. 88.
14
I,
32
ff.
"CT
52
V-3
that this Amorite, from the city of Mari, overthrew the third 27 dynasty of Ur, and became the founder of the Nisin dynasty. These examples suffice to show that omens of this character
unquestionably refer to historical events, and notably to great conquerors who overthrew dynasties, as well as to subjugating enemies. The two omens referring to Huwawa have been known for some If a woman give birth to the face of Huwawa time one reads the king and his sons will leave the city." 28 The other is: "If a sheep bear a lion, and it has the face of Huwawa, the prince will not have a rival; he will destroy the land of the enemy." 29 In
* ' ;
:
an omen text of the Pierpont Morgan Collection (BRM IV, 13), "If the tirani is like the face the following is found in line 65 of d Hum-Hum, a usurper of the land will rule the world."
:
fragment
in the British Museum duplicates the first part of six consecutive lines of this text (i. e., 63 to 68), the third of which reads: "If the tirani is like the face of Hum-ba-ba," etc., 30 showing that the ideogram ^Hum-Hum is to be read Humbaba or
Huwawa. These omens can only be interpreted as meaning that Humbaba was a usurper, who like Bau-ellit, Sargon, and IshbiUrra, overthrew a dynasty, conquered the lands, and was without a rival. The third interprets the other two together they clearly indicate that Humbaba or Huwawa had been a mighty conqueror, and that he had doubtless subjugated Babylonia.
;
What the characteristic feature was which enabled the priests to associate the omen-sign with Huwawa is not clear. Jastrow has shown that Huwawa in omens is contrasted with tigru
"dwarf." 31
in the
The character
of
Huwawa
or
Humbaba
' '
is
described
a deluge, whose
Gilgamesh Epic as dapini "terrible one," "whose roar is mouth is fire, whose breath is death. The elders Gilgamesh from attempting
to over:
who has
"CT27,
80
81
21:8.
See also
CT
CT
27, 4:
8.
IV
53
or capital in the heart of the cedar forest! Who has ever opposed his weapon? In short, the references to the despot seem to convey
the idea that he
Gilgamesh figures also in the divination texts; among which the following has been found: "If a woman give birth, and the (child) has the head of a snake; (it is) the omen of Nin-GishZidda who ravaged the land; (and it is) the omen of Gilgamesh who ruled the land, and who became 'the king of hosts' in the land." 32 It is clear from the Gilgamesh Epic that Gilgamesh in the early part of his reign was subservient to another, and that he was able to overthrow the enemy.
therefore from the omen texts that one named who had usurped the throne of the West, had conquered Humbaba, and we learn from the Gilgamesh Epic that about this the land time a personage named Engidu, which Sumerian name was very
learn
;
We
probably originally Semitic, Ea-tabu or Ba'al-tob, appeared on the scene and became the ally of Gilgamesh. Possibly we may later ascertain that the power which Humbaba represented was designated by the eagle. At present, however, this can only be regarded as conjectural. Moreover, the epic bearing the name of Gilgamesh was originally written to commemorate the overthrow of Humbaba, which when accomplished doubtless enabled Gilgamesh to become the 'king of hosts.' The fact that Humbaba, who bears an Amorite name, is a historical personage, that he lived in a cedar district of the West, and that he humiliated Babylonia at the time of Gilgamesh, about 4000
B. C., prove conclusively the writer's contentions concerning the antiquity of the Amorite civilization.
there has
come
to light more than one effort on the part of ancient scribes, who lived prior to the time of Abraham, to give a history of the world,
beginning with a creation story, the building of cities, a deluge story, and dynastic lists extending to the time the tablets were written. Unfortunately nearly all tablets of this period have come down to us in a fragmentary condition. They, however, forcibly remind us of the efforts of the Biblical writer and give us the know;
"
CT
27, 1
8-9.
54
V-3
ledge that the Babylonians also had outline histories of man from the beginning. Moreover, the knowledge that the Babylonians had several creation myths, and more than one version of the deluge,
what the literary analysis of the Pentateuch had long ago determined, namely that in the Old Testament there are two creation stories and two of the flood, as well as other duplicate traditions, such as are found in Babylonian libraries. And further, the discovery that the Atra-hasis Epic is of Amorite
parallels
West Semitic
or
Hebrew
tradition of the
There would seem to be little doubt that the names of the patriarchs, which are given in the Old Testament, belong to the Hebrew or the Aramaean branch of the Semitic race and that other lists of contemporaneous rulers among the Semites were also in existThe antediluvian list of kings handed down by Berossus ence. All kinds of efforts have been made to show that is one of these. the Hebrew list is taken from this one but they have utterly failed. They have in common only one thing, that is the tenth antediluvian in each list is a hero of the flood, in one case Noah, and in the other Atra-hasis. If it should be found that the Amorites of Mesopotamia used clay for their writing material in the early period, it
;
is
lists will
be found.
Cer-
tainly the discoveries made in Babylonia would indicate that lists of rulers and similar traditions existed in the library of every great
temple.
zation of the fact that underlying the Old Testament outline of history, as well as these chronicles of the Babylonians, there is real history. The claim that the Biblical patriarchs and the early
kings of Babylonia are the creation of a fiction writer, or belong no support from the discoveries made in the past decade. In every instance in which archaeology has thrown
to mythology, has
light upon the subject, we find that we have historical characters to deal with. There may be only a few names given, and they may be made to represent a period which actually covered many
millenniums of history, nevertheless, there are reasons for believing that the names represent actual persons who lived. Man
IV
;,;,
may
be depicted as riding to heaven on the back of an eagle, turnan angel, or living in a whale's belly for three days, but nevertheless we have reasons to
ing into a pillar of salt, fighting with
believe that their
names represent historical characters. Again and again have we had the experience of transferring names from what has been regarded as the realm of mythology, or what has been regarded as the creation of an ancient fiction writer, to the pages of history. The discoveries of the past decades have played such an important role in this connection that it is now possible
it is impossible for those scholars who relegate to the region of myth certain Biblical or Babylonian characters to substantiate their position. In short, as already stated, it cannot be shown from the literature of the ancients that in the Semitic
to assert that
world a single god ever became a mortal. We find a process analogous to what took place in Greece and elsewhere epics and traditions were directly based upon historical personages; moreover, many deities have already turned out to be deified persons,
;
when the present writer first contested this general position, it had been demonstrated that the Hammurabi dynasty was Amorite, with the understanding, however, that Amorites were Arabs. Those who held the view that the periodic Arab
migrations accounted for the peoples in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia, maintained that an early wave furnished Babylonia with Semites late in the fourth millennium B. C., that a second wave between 2400 and 2100 B. C. furnished Syria and Mesopotamia with Amorites; that between 1500 and 1300 a third wave furnished Palestine and adjacent lands with Aramaeans and
Hebrews; and that in the seventh century of the Christian era, Western Asia and Europe received Arabs, namely Mohammedans. Another who accepted and promulgated the theory completed the thousand year " spilling over" process by inserting another wave from the fifth century B. C., when Nabataeans moved upon Petra; in short, these periodical outbursts or sporadic waves of hungry, tribesmen," occurring about every thousand years when Arabia became so full that this spitting out process was necessary, furnished Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia with its inhabitants.
' '
56
V-3
Amurru
the
in
Home
more recently
The Empire of
of the Northern Semites (1909), and the Amorites (1919), the writer
contested this theory, as accepted by many adherents, largely on the basis of a study of the nomenclature found in the Babylonian Hundreds of data were offered in proof of the new inscriptions.
some of which were facts, others were based upon different interpretations, or upon what seemed to be implied, and, as would be expected, upon suggestions which had no direct bearing upon the thesis, but which seemed to throw light upon the While admitting that historical background of these peoples. Arabs have in all periods filtered into these lands, the writer contends that this wave theory is baseless and he has presented many discoveries to show that the civilization of Syria and
position,
;
Mesopotamia, that
the earliest
is,
known
in
the land, of the Amorites, synchronized with Babylonia and Egypt. Some additional
discoveries were presented in an article on the Antiquity of Babylonian Civilization published in 1921, which are augmented in
the present treatise. In short, while an abundance of material has been discovered during the past decade which permits of the gradual reconstruction of the history of Amurru, and which tends to confirm the writer's position, he knows of nothing that has come to light which supports the contested theories. In conclusion, the writer's position is summarized in the following two points, both of which imply the negation of prevailing
theories.
Arabs have always filtered into adjacent lands there no basis for the theory that within the period covered by the written history of man, the inhabitants of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia were dependent upon Arabia for their Semites and their culture; on the contrary, the Semites in Syria and Mesopotamia had an indigenous existence and civilization which synchronizes with the earliest known in Babylonia and Egypt.
First, while
is
Israel's culture
Second, that the position of the Pan-Babylonists, namely that and religion was of Babylonian origin, is without
foundation, for the culture is indigenous, excepting the interchange of cultural elements which ordinarily takes place between neighbor-
ing peoples
IV
57
the great alluvium pre-eminently from Syria and Mesopotamia, as is echoed in the tradition "and it came to pass as they journeyed eastward that they found a plain in the land of Shinar;"
and they brought with them their religion and culture which, under the influence of the Sumerians, resulted in what we call Akkadian or Semitic-Babylonian. These two points summarize
the writer's position.
APPENDIX.
A.
EPIC. 1
TRANSLITERATION.
TRANSLATION.
COLUMN
1
[li]-'(?)-bi-il
I.
[ri]-ig-[ma-si-i]n bal-ti-
ma-tum
ir-ta-bi-is ni-[su
im]-ti-da
[m]a-tum
5
[
Jci-ma
li-i
i-sa-ab-bu
The land had become great; the people had multiplied. The land like a bull had become satiated. [In] their assemblage God was absent.
...... heard their clamor.
......
is-te-me ri-gi-im-si-in
ra-bu-Um
He
said to the great gods( ?), Those observing the clamor of men,
Scheil Eecuett de
Travaux 20
55ff;
VI
1 288 ff;
Dhorme CJioix de Textes Eeligieux Assyro-Babyloniens 120ff; Ungnad und Silder I 57 f; and Bogers Cuneiform Parallels 104ff.
A,
Altorientalische Texte
The word fyu-bu-ri-si-na, which occurs several times in the redaction, was left untrans4. by all except Dhorme, who rendered it "totalite." The root of this word in Hebrew and Aramaic means "to join, to associate; " cf. "OH "company, association; " "QH "asso"
lated
V V
T
companion." The corresponding word in Babylonian was pufyru, which the redactor employed in his paraphrases. A, 4. The only root in Hebrew or Aramaic to which it-ta-afy-da-ar could belong is *^"1^
ciate,
absent, lacking." I am indebted to Professor Torrey for this identification. It is probable that a redactor did not understand the word, for he changed the thought in his para' ( concerning their clamor phrase, and used a word similar in appearance, eli rigmesina ittadir he was troubled." A, 5. dEn-lil is probably to be restored (see note under B, 111:4). It is to be regretted
"to be
that one of the three passages (see also B, 111:37) does not preserve the name intact. A, 6. The words el(?}-li ra-bu-tim are replaced in the late redaction by ana Hani mare-su "to the gods, his children" (see B, 111:5).
A,
7.
the root
^p V
Iq-ta-ab-ta, written [iq]-tab-ta-ma in the redaction (B, 111:6), seems to be from " It is found in all the Semitic languages ' ' to trace, investigate, search out.
except Akkadian.
In Hebrew
it especially
Cf. the
form
59
Let the
off].
10 [i-na~sa-da]-ti-si-na
su
hi-bi-is
d
li-'-zu
sa-am-mu
become
Adad
li-sa-aq-ti-il
-a
[li]-il-li-ka
the sheep let Adad destroy. Injured. [The fountains of the deep] let not flow.
na] -aq-bi
sa-ru
li-e-ir-ri
[That the flood rise not at the so] urce. Let the wind blow. Let
Hebrew
;
15 [na]-ag-bi-ra
A, which
8.
it
drive mightily.
devastate, to be desolate/' a root 74.3, and also the noun fitftp,
in the redactor's paraphrase
The root of
ma-M-ft-to, is the
tf)$ "to
is parallel in
meaning
to ,-f^gf
cf.
fi'lNltPO Psalm
as well as
n*X8P "desolation,"
Is.24:12.
Compare m-Si-tu
(B, 111:3), which is somewhat similar in meaning. In V R 31:30 maS-H-ti is parallel to ni-si-tum. These have been construed as meaning "to forget" from the Akkadian maM, see Delitzsch 486a. However, it must be said that there is a possibility of ma&ttu being identified with masddu to press, oppress, strike. '
HWB
This
' '
'
A,
9.
is
j"f
J^f! T
;
meaning
' '
fig
tree ;
"
in
Akkadian
is
titu is
In B, 111:43 the same expression used; see also e-me-su B, 111:53. It would appear that the root is not amdsu " to be little, wanting, ' ' but masu or wasu. The context suggests that perhaps the verb was a denominative, meaning something like ' ' to become weeds, thorns ; " cf seru pallcu lulid idranu (B, III :4) "let the wide field bear weeds ( ?) ; " which the gloss probably indicates
is
.
used (see also Chap. I). The root of li-'-zu is not known to the writer.
(n*lt^)> instead of V T
scribe of the late text (see below). The writer tentatively restores Tcarsisina as in the redaction, because he feels the
redactor in writing the paraphrase did not understand the passage. A, 11. Scheil originally regarded the root of li-Sa-aq-ti-U as meaning
"to kill;"
this is
Hebrew.
A, 12.
The form
lisaqtil
should be noted.
As already
stated, similar
ta-ma-ti
was injured were perhaps the "fountains of the deep." Since the
instead of
is
\li\-il-li-L-ti,
li-is-sa-Tcir, probably this word stood also in the original text which would give us a line parallel to Gen. 8:2, where the same verb
used.
A, A,
13.
15.
This passage
is restored with the help of the late text, B, 111:45 [na]-ag-bi-ra seems also to be Amorite from the root ")3J| ; cf.
and
55.
"VQj "mighty."
A, 15. The root of li-e-ir-ri is to be found in the Hebrew j-py "to throw, hurl." It has been suggested by Professor Torrey that this may be the root of ur-ru-w ia idri, see Delitzsch
HWB p.
130b.
60
V-3
[ur]-bi-e-tum li-im-ta-an-ni-ma
Let the clouds be held back, that [Rain from the heavjens pour not forth. Let the field withhold its fertility.
[Let a change Nisaba.
sa dNisaba
COLUMN
li-
II.
Let
Let
;
.
li-ba-as
On
the
morrow
let
him cause
it
to rain
mu-si ....
......
li-sa-az-ni-in na-as-[ba
li.
mightily Let him give in the night Let him cause it to rain a tempest Let it come upon the field like a
thief.
Let
sa
d
Adad
COLUMN
385
i
VII.
*En-ki
d En-ki bi-a-su
[i-pu-sa-ma]
i
Ea Ea
his
iz-za-kar a-na
Spake
Why
I
hast thou
stretch
will
to
the
pefople]
a-bu-bu sa ta-ga-ab-bu
A,
16.
The
flood,
The root of
' '
V^Q "to
withhold
4:7; Professor Torrey. A, 17. This and the following two lines are restored from the late redaction; see B, 111:46, 47, 56 and 57.
hold back ;
used of rain,
Amos
etc.
VI
The meaning "Ertrag, produce," etc., have been offered for isbiku (see Jensen KB In Hebrew, the root besides the general meaning "to pour out" means also "to shed blood," "to pour out one's soul, one's personality." A, 70. The word ib-l>a-ra apparently is Amorite; cf. the Hebrew ")^l^ "mighty."
A,
18.
A, 75.
It seems as if
ma
is
waw
consecutive.
61
Who
I
is
he!
395
li-ib-te-ru
su-u
ilu-su ul-la-ad
u
u
[
iltu
li-il-li-ku i-na
elippi
. .
ta-ar-ku-ul-li pi-ir
li-il-li-ku
400
li-ir-
mu
435
COLUMN
na u
ga-me-ir
.... ra .... a-na ni-si i-pu-us m At~ra-am-ha-si-is bi-a-su i-pu-saiz-za-kar a-na be-li-su
VIII.
m[a]
Spoke
to his lord.
440
37
37 (lines)
duppu
The second
"When
su-nigin-bi 439
qdt Azagar * u
Aya
By
the
scribe.
8abatu
umu
28 kam
445
mu
Shebet, day 28th of the year when Ammi-zaduga, the king, built the city Diir- Ammi-zaduga
at the
Month
mouth
EPIC. 2
TRANSLITERATION.
TRANSLATION.
[arrives]
[arrives]
A, 398.
in current use in
Akkadian.
'The
text is published in
KB
VI
was translated by Zimmern ZA 14 277ff; Jensen 15, 49; 274ff; Dhorme Choix 128ff; Ungnad ATB I 61ff; and Rogers Cuneiform PardtteU
CT
104ff.
62
V-3
IV sattu
nu
When
ik-ru-ni
in their become changed. the fourth year arrives, their position was miserable.
. .
.
The wide their became oppressed. The people [wan]der in the streets with
. . .
. .
sattu
i-na ka-sa-[di]
i-da-gal
e-rib
ummi
When
mdrtu
the head [bowed] the fifth year arrives, the daughter looks for the entering of the
.
mother.
ummu
zi-ba-ni-it
ummi mdrtu
i-[na-tal]
The daughter
[looks]
upon the
treas-
35
VI
ana
When
the sixth year arrives, they prepare the [daughter] for a meal.
child
im-la-ni
ma-
....
Mtu
another.
B, 1:28. Dhorme reads ma-&o(or so) -si-su-nu, and translates "leurs villes(?)," and is followed by Rogers; Jensen and Ungnad leave untranslated. B, 1:30. The first part of the line is read qa-t(d)a is(s,s)-? by Jensen; qa-da-isu by
the
= Hebrew *tD"lD
I
:
It is not improbable that the third sign is qad, in which case ' ' crown f the head. ' '
IT
word
si-ba-ni-it
"scales"
is
the ?fi
' ' to hide, treasure up, ' ' which was not in current use in Akkadian. Treasured things, stores ' ' would make better sense than "scales", as usually translated, in the above passage. The
in the
Amarna
Letters.
Knudtzon
translates
wiederkehrt bei seinem Versehwinden " (147:10). be translated "who is mindful of his treasure."
"und
* '
pat-te have been translated by Dhorme "aussitot," by Ungnad perhaps reading Tcurmate(-te) , who is followed by Rogers reading a-na pat-te "for food(?)." The word seems to be the Hebrew f]Q "morsel." Not being current in Babylonia and Assyria the redactor wrote the gloss which precedes: "they prepare the daughter for a meal.
B, 1:36.
zur Zehrung(
"
' '
B, 1:37. The word i-ri-fra-ma restored from 11:50, is Amorite, although the only occurrence of the root in the O. T. is in nil")Z< "meal, food" (Gesenius Heb. Die. 17 p. 65). The root
T \
~:
arafyu occurs in
p. 132.
IV R
49, 29b,
and
is
"to eat,"
cf.
Delitzseh
HWB
63
Like ghosts their faces [they cover]. The people [live] in violence.
40 sipra il-qu-[u]
e-tar-bu-ma
te-ir-ti
ma-bel mdti.
44.
.
,ta-ia-a-[ru] ....
. .
of the land
the return
45 ..
ma
46
ma
COLUMN
II.
si
e-lis
28 is-sur
d
[
bird.
Adad
Be [low]
his rain]. (the fountain of the deep) was stopped, [that the flood rose not at
the source].
The
musdti mei
ip-
field
diminished
[its fertility].
[A change came over the bosom of] Nisaba. [By night the fields became
white].
[The wide plain] bore weeds (?). [The plant came not] forth; the sheep [did not become pregnant]. [Calamity was put upon the people]. [The womb was closed, and the child
came not
forth].
B, 1:38.
simati
Jensen reads
lieu
. . . .
Ici-i
simti: simati
"au
d 'ornaments. "
"gemass dem, was gehorig 1st," Dhorme fci-t Ungnad and Rogers leave untranslated. For sedimmu
Jensen
reads
Dhorme reads &u-ut(-)lc(q)e-e-in bal-ta-at without translating. Les gens vivaient d 'une vie 6teinte. ' ' Ungnad did not translate,
and Rogers followed Dhorme, translating "the people lived with bated breath." The root pardku "to display violence" is used in Akkadian. B, 1:43. This ma is left wholly unaccounted for in the translations. The writer proposes
that
conjunctive. Different meanings have been offered for the word idranu, as "ashes, alkali, ' ' For the latter see Hinke A New Boundary Stone of Nebuchadsaltpeter, salt, weeds, thorns. nezzar p. 248. I am indebted to Dr. W. Muss-Arnolt for this reference. It was doubtless an
it is
the
waw
B, 11:33.
scribe,
who
' '
by night the
fields
became
64
V-3
[When
t[um]
40
[III sattu i-na] ka-sa-di [ni-su i-na .... -si-na] it-tak-ru
[When
.became changed.
arrives
their
[When
the
fourth year
is
position]
miserable.
. . .
.
-si-na] is-si-qa
became op-
e-rib]
ummi
[When
the fifth year arrives] the daughter looks for [the entering] of the
,
[ummu
[zi-ba-ni-it
ummi mdrtu]
i-na-tdl
mother. [The mother op] ens not her door [to the daughter] [The daughter] looks upon [the treas.
mdrti i]-na-tal
ummu
[the treasures of
the daughter.] [When the sixth year arrives, they prepare] the daughter for a meal.
[For morsels] they prepare [the child] one house devours [Full was ]
.
another.
[The people]
amelu
[ana 55 [i-ta-m]u
[beli-su
d
beli-su dE]-a
uzni-su pi-ta-at
it-ti ili-su
[The wise] Atra-hasis, the man, E [a his lord] his thought turns. [He speaks] with his god. [His lord Ea] speaks with him. the door of his god. By the river he places his bed.
To
B, 11:56.
Dhorme
la-a, and considers it to be the negative particle. Ungnad, and Rogers while regarding it as the negative,
appreciated the difficulty added a question mark. It appears to be the Hebrew inseparable preposition with the pronominal suffix, which the scribe glossed with it-ti-su. B, 11:59. Me-it-ra-tu-su has been translated "rains," see Dhorme. Jensen, Ungnad and Rogers do not translate. This is the Hebrew ")J3Q in the plural, as recognized by Dhorme.
COLUMN
.... ir-ta
[eli]
III.
rig(ri-gi)-me-si-na it-ta-d[ir]
[He spoke
[Enl]il held [his] assembly. [He sa]id to the gods his children,
bled.
[He said
in]
ma
su-ru-bu-u
li-si
lib-si
there be malaria.
10 [sur-r]is
ri-gim-si-na nam-tar
[Hast]ily clamor.
let fate
make an end
to their
[Lijke a storm,
let it
overwhelm them.
ma
su-ru-bu-u ib-si
i-si
[sur]-ris(ri-is)
ri-gim-si-na
nam-
their cry.
tar
overwhelmed them,
amelu
[ana beli]-su
[i-t]a-mu
E-a uzni-su
pi-ta-at
The wi[se lord] Atra-hasis, the man, To Ea, his [lord], his thought turns.
[He sp]eaks with his god. His [lord] Ea speaks with him.
it-ti ili-su
20 [beli]-su dE-a
B, 111:3.
it-ti-su
i-ta-mu
MU(= izzakar)
" ni-&i-tit was translated by Jensen "sollen nicht erfassen; " " by Dhorme "1'oubli ne 1'atteindra pas; Ungnad "ergreift ihn nicht; by Rogers "gives by me no heed." The root of i-sa-ba-ta does not seem to be snb&tu "to take," but the well
known Hebrew root
^y
"to
grieve, to be
pained;"
cf.
ftp fi?1#
Is-
54:6, etc.
Thia
Dhorme
This also
is
a Hebrew word.
B, 111:4.
British
copied.
Museum
Jensen has proposed that [dn]-lil be restored. Mr. Sidney Smith of the kindly informed the writer that the sign as reproduced in the text is correctly
In the old version instead of a-na tidni m&ri-iu we have e-na cl(f)-li ra-&-tm.
B, 111:5.
66
V-3
To Ea,
lord,
his lord.
ta-ni-se-ti
mankind is in misery. Your power consumes the land. [E]a, O lord, mankind is in misery.
[The anger] of the gods consumes the
land.
....
ma
te-ib-nu-na-si-ma
[li-ip-par]-sa
mur-sa
ti-'u
a-sa-ku
d
[
[Ea opened
his
mouth], he speaks to
:
30
pray
to
your goddess.
33
tu .niqu
god, his
command.
ta]-kan(ka-an) qat-su
[En-lil.]il-ta-kan pu-hur-su
:
izakkara
he speaks to
pa-na
i-ta-at-
ra
put them to death. have not become less; they [The people] are more numerous than before.
[Concerning] their cry I am troubled. [He said in] their assemblage to those
40
ta ni-si-tu
[lip-par] -sa-ma a-na ni-se-e ti-ta
fig tree
sam-mu
[e]-lis
Adad
waw
zu-un-na-su lu-sa-qir
All the translations construe
Above,
let
Adad make
B, 111:29.
it
me
as an emphatic particle.
as the
consecutive.
B, 111:38. This has been read .... ra-me e ta-as-Jcu-na-si-na-ti "do nothing for them." Me-e-ta seems to be the Hebrew j"T)Q. However, as the passage is incomplete, this can only
is
See note under A, 9. lated except by Dhorme, "aux gens la plante epineuse. B, 111:44. In the old version we have ---- su dAdad li-sa-aq-ti-il, see A, 11. Babylonian scribe did not know the Hebrew word, and changed the sense.
"
given ni-se
e-ti-ta,
and
is left
untrans-
Probably a
67
me-lu i-na
Below
na-aq-bi
(the fountain of the deep) be stopped, that the flood rise not at the
let
source.
[l]i-sur eqlu is-pi-ki-e-su
d [l]i-ni-* irtu sa Nisaba
:
Let the
musdtimfl
lip-
su-u ugdre" *1
1
field withhold its fertility. Let a change come over the bosom of Nisaba; by night let the fields become
white.
seru pal-ku-u
[l]i-bal-kat
lu-li-id
id-ra-nu
:
ki-ri-im-sa
sam-mu
ia
field bear weeds (T). Let her bosom revolt, that the plant come not forth, that the sheep become not
pregnant. Let calamity be placed upon the people. Let the [womb] be closed, that it bring forth no infant.
The
fig tree
was cut
sam-mu
In their
Above,
bellies,
Adad
zu-un-na-su u-sa-qir
Adad
[off] for the people. the plant was wanting. made scarce his rain.
of the deep)
was
The
field
withheld
its fertility.
;
ugdre
ib-bal-
The wide
field
bore weeds (
T)
her
womb
revolted.
sam-mu
remu ku-sur-ma
ul u-se-sir sir-ra
The plant came not forth the sheep did not become pregnant. Calamity was placed upon the people. The womb was closed, and brought forth
;
no baby.
B, 111:45. As already observed, A, 12 had been injured when the early text was written, and the subject of the verb was lost. It is also wanting in this text. We find the subject in Gen. 8:2, in the words "fountains of the deep." In Genesis the same form from the same
verb
is
" Dhorme read su-u ia B, 111:49. Jensen translated iti-u ia i-'-ru "Korn nicht ____ ess! ' ' ' 'elle ne germe pas '. i- '-ru Getride nicht kommen ( T ) ". Rogers, reading iu-u qu Ungnad There are two occurrences of iu in the Annals i-im-ru, translated "lambs shall not fatten." of Sargon, see Delitzsch 632. This also is the Hebrew word fyy "one of a flock" (a
'
' ! 1
namely ^I^D* T
:
HWB
sheep or a goat), here used collectively as in the O. T. " to conceive." B, 111:59. This is the root
t'-'-ru
following
HIH
68
V-3
COLUMN
....
d
[
IV.
]E-a
iz-za-kar
Ea
:
said.
u-sam(sa-am}-na-si
....
si-ip-ta
is-tu-ma tam-
[reci]ted
an incantation.
;
After
i]
[XIV
gi-ir]-si taq-ri-is
VII
gi-ir-si
off;
seven
[Seven] pieces she laid on the left; between them she placed a brick.
Offspring
is
tip-te-si
[
.
is]
VII u-ba-na-a
She then called the wise Seven and seven mothers, seven formed
boys.
Seven formed
girls
Them(
The
?),
figures of people,
15 i-na bit
li-na-di
libittu
In the house of the bearing one the midwife, shall let the brick for seven days
lie.
Mah
e-ris-ta dMa-mi
ha-ris-ti li-ih-
du
ak-ki a-li-it-tu u-la-du-ma
ummi
sa]
sir-ri lu-har-ri-sa
ra-ma-an-[niel-li
it
Male
3
ASSYRIAN FRAGMENT.
and Delitzsch Assyrische The text was published by Pinches IV Ea Additions p. 9 LesestuclceP p. 101. It was translated by Haupt KAT* 61; Jensen Kosmologie 371f; KB
VI
1 254f;
ATB
I 57;
Winckler Textluch 94f; Jeremias ATAO 233; Dhorme Choix 126f; TIngnad Eogers Cuneiform Parallels 104; and Jastrow Heb. and Bab. Trad. 344.
,;:,
sa[p-lis]
let it
close
.a-dan-na
sa
a-sap-pa-rak-[kumtir-
ma]
[ana elippi] e-ru-um-ma bob elippi
[ra]
lib-bi-sa seat-ka
.
and
close the
busu-ka u
... .in it
makkuru-[ka]
[assat]-ka mdre me *
ki-mat-ka
sa-lat-ka
Thy
The
bu-ul seri
//-
um-ma-ni u-ma-am
seri
ma-la urqiti
10 [a-sap-p]a-rak-kum-ma i-na-as-as-sa-ru
bdbi-[ka]
[At-ra]-ha-sis pa-a-su epus-ma iqabi
d [iz-zak]-kar ana E-a
field, as many as devfour] grass, I will send thee, and they will guard thy door.
be-li-[su]
Atra-hasis opened his mouth, and spoke. He said to Ea, his lord:
long I have not built a ship. Upon the earth draw a plan!
!
How
[lu-pu-
The plan
ship.
let
me
see,
and
sa taq-ba-a
D.
A DELUGE STORY
COLUMN
IN SUMERIAN.*
III.
is
wanting.
10
ki- ....
12 a-ma-ru
-ne-ne in
The
14
a-
The people
14
the
12 The flood
13
made,
]
15
ii-bi-a d Nin-t[u
dim
At
mu-
woman
azag
d
lnnanna-g
uku-bi-su a-nir
d En-ki
Ea
in his
own
and translation were published by Poebel Historical and Gramand Historical Texts 14ff and 66ff. Translations are also found in Barton Archaeology and the Bible 280f; Jastrow Heb. and Bab. Trad. 335ff; and King Legends of Babylon and Egypt 62ff.
The
text, transliteration
1,
70
V-3
An
Nin-har-sag-gad En-lil
Anu,
Enlil,
Ea and Nin-Harsag
....
g[e]
dingir-an-ki-ge
n[i]-.
.
.
mu An
mu-
The gods
the
of heaven
name
of
Anu
At
AN-SAG-gur-gur mu-un-dlm-dim en
nam-BtJB-na KA-si-si-gi ni-te-ga
u-su-us-e sag-us-gub-ba ma-mu-nu-me-a e-de KA-bal
great
he made
25 mu--an-ki-bi-ta pa-pa-de
By
COLUMN
IV.
the
name
of heaven
jures
GIS
a-gub-bu-mu gub-ba
For the gods Zi-u-suddu standing at its side heard At the wall on my left side stand
iz-zi-da i(nim)-ga-ra-ab-du-dii
At
the wall I will speak a word to thee. My holy one, give attention
!
By
our hand(
?)
10
An
e( ?)-[n]e-su
[
its (their)
reign
COLUMN
im-hul-im-hul-ni-gur-gur-gal du-a-bi
ur-bi ni-lah-gi-es a-ma-ru u-dii kab-dii-ga ba-an-da-ab-
V.
the
All
mighty
windstorms
raged.
together
blew,
The
flood
ur-ur
D, IV: 8.
is
Akkadian.
When
The
flood
When
d Utu
u-ma-ma
the storm drove out the great boat over the mighty waters. Shamash (the sun-god) came forth shedding light over the heaven and earth.
Zi-u-sud-du
tf'ma-gur-gur
KA(T)-
[hatch]
of the
into
Shamash enters
the interior (
T)
10
igi-
Utu-su KA-ki-su-ub-ba-tum
u[d]u im13
....
The king
sac rifles
an ox; a sheep he
slaughters (?).
....
mu-un-[n]a
bi-in-si 16
14
tab-ba 17 The
15
a-[b]a
rest of the
column
is
missing.
COLUMN
zi-an-na zi-ki-a ni-pa-de-en-zi-en za-zu-da fee-im-da-la
VI.
By
An
d En-lil
Anu
That he may be .... with you. (and) Enlil by the soul of heaven, by the soul of earth shall ye conjure
He
will be
with you.
rises
in
tum
ti
zi-da-ri
Life like (that of) a god he gives to him; An eternal soul like (that of) a god he creates for him.
mu
nig-gil-ma numun-nam-lu-qal-
URU(?)-ag
At that time Zi-u-suddu, the king, The name of the niggilma (he named) "Presence of the seed of mankind"
72
V-3
gal-bi(?)-ti(?)-es-a
The
-ra(
f)
Zi-u-sud-du
SAL
E.
d
EPIC. 5
upon
thou
art.
is
thee, O, tJm-napishtim
is
mi-na-tu-ka ul sa-na-a
ta
Thy appearance
like
art.
am
like
u
5
And
am
thou
gu-um-mur-ka
un-ti
lib-bi
There
make combat.
And
ka
.
.ki-i
ta-az-ziz-ma ina
puhur
ildnimeS
[Tell me],
how
ba-la-ta tas-'-u
found
life in
gamesh
I
will reveal,
story
And
ka
&l
will relate.
Shurippak, a city which thou knowest, Is situated (on the bank) of the Euphrates,
first
translation in
(1876).
The
AL
lOlff
IV R3
43f.
The Chaldean Account of Genesis 263ff Haupt Nimrod-Epos 133ff and Pinches by Fox Talbot, Oppert, Lenormant, Haupt,
;
Jensen, Jeremias, Winckler, Zimmern, King, Ball, Jastrow, Muss-Arnolt, Clay, Rogers, Barton and others. For comparative purposes the following four are freely quoted in the discussions
in the notes:
KB
90ff.
VI
1 228ff;
Dhorme Choix
lOOff ;
Ungnad
ATS
I 50ff ;
and Rogers
a-lii
na^da-at
e-li
si-ri-Tca
"thou
liest
down
upon thy
E,
9.
side,
upon thy back the writer proposes the above. The word nisirtu meaning "hidden thing," as already noted,
is
Amorite.
73
That
it,
city
guzalu-su-nu
d
d En-Urta
d
gu-gal-la-su-nu
d
gods, brought their hearts to send a deluge. [These drew near] their father, Anu Their counselor, the warrior Enlil; Their herald, En-Urta; Their hero, Ennugi.
;
The great
The lord of wisdom, Ea counseled with them; and He repeated their words to the qikkis
:
qi-ik-ki-su
d Tu-Tu
si-me-ma i-ga-ru
hi-is-sa-as
amel Su-ru-up-pa-ku-u mar Ubarau-qur bita bi-ni elippa 25 mus-sir mesre(-e) se-'-i napsdte mei na(f)-ak-ku-ra zi-ir-ma na-pis-ta bullit
Qikkis, qikkis! Wall, wall O, qikkis, hear O wall, give attention Man of Shurippak, son of Ubara-Tutu,
! !
Tear down the house, build a ship Leave possessions, take thought for
!
life
Abandon property
save
life
[s]
life
of
lib-bi "elippi
shalt build,
tioned
[ki]-ma
it
with a roof
E, 20. The writer feels that qikkii or qiqqii is an archaic Amorite word which is glossed by igaru "wall." A wooden wall would alone furnish material for the construction of the boat. Si-me-ma is also apparently a gloss for bi-is-sa-att.
E, 26. If instead of na-ak-ku-ra the injured line should prove to read ina ma-ak-lcu-ra, then zi-ir-ma would probably be from or "Vtf "to turn aside", and the preceding line
would be a gloss; the Akkadian word i-ei-ir-an-ni "hates me" occurs a few lines below. E, 31. The word ia-a-Si also occurs in line 61, in Sa-a-Si e-sir-H. Jensen translates 31 " " [B]eim Weltmeer leg es (, es) hin", Dhorme "Sur I'oc6an place-le! ". Ungnad [An] den Ozean lege es vor Anker (f)," Rogers " the heaven cover it with a roof," and Hilpreeht ' Cover it like the subterranean waters. Jensen translated line 60, ' Ich warf hin di& Vorder.
. . .
^p
'
' '
'
es;" Dhorme, "Je tracai ses contours, je les dessinai;" Ungnad, "Ich " and Rogers, "I enclosed it." entwarf(f) den Vorderbau(f) und zeichnete es (das Schiff) The word 3o-a-& is perhaps to be identified with the Amorite form of Shamash, namely 1C* see Clay BE X:116. Nabopolassar in a late building inscription from Sippar calls himself
gestalt zeichnete
;
74
V-3
my
lord,
E-a
be-li-ia
commanded, thus
I will observe, I will execute.
35
d
[
city,
the
u si-bu-tum
i-zak-ka-ra
....
He said unto me, his servant Verily thou shalt say to them,
:
[a]-di-ma
i-zi-ir-an-ni-
[I
kn]ow
ma
40 ul us-sab ina a[li-ku]-nu-ma d [in] a qaq-qar En-lil ul a-sak-ka- [na]
pdni-ia-a-ma [ur]-rad-ma ana apsi
li-ia
it-ti
may
Nor on the
I will
[E-a be]-
go
down
as-ba-ku
my
nune meS
[eli
k]a-a-su-nu u-sa-az-na-an-ku-nu-si
issure meS bu-[']-ur
nu-uh-sam-ma
[bu-'-ur]
[A catch
ma
45 .... [ra-b]a-a e-bu-ra-am-ma
....
.... a harvest,
and
li-la-a-ti)
....
When
ning,
[u-sa-az-na-nu-ku]-nu-si sa-mu-tum
ki-ba-a-ti
[mim-mu-u
....
glows se-e-ri] ina na-ma-a-ri heard [a]s-ma-a ... 50 ... pa-as(z, s) u ... 51 [k]a(f) ... 54 u ... pi ta About fifty lines missing.
]-s*
55 sir-ru ......
kup-ra
dan-nu ina
mi-gi-ir
..
[hi]-sih-tu ub-la
da-as-u KB III 2, 8:10. It is written without the determinative KB III 64:11, 13. The word seems to mean Shamash, as hitherto noted. In the deluge text above, does it not refer to the course through which Shamash travels, namely the firmament, the covering, the vault above the earth? The word apsu was a synonym. The passage it would seem should be translated, "like the apsu, enclose it with a roof". In the case of the deluge ship, it was
absolutely necessary that it have a roof.
APPENDIX
KI'K'
75
ina fya-an-si u-mi [a]t-ta-di bu-na-sa as-kan ty-sa 10 GAR "-* * saq-qa-a
1
On
I
placed
the fifth day, I raised its form. its walls about its perimeter 120
mei
cubits high.
GAR
jii-sa
upper part.
with a roof
e-sir-si
(Mff).
VI-su
I covered
I
I
it (i. e. made decks) six times. divided (into divisions) seven times. divided its interior nine times.
"sikkdti
si
me
Water-tanks in
I inspected the
its
midst
I constructed.
65 a-mur pa-ri-su u
fyi-siji-tuin
compartments, and I
I
in-
VI
qi-i-ri
HI
Three sars of
I
oil
the
samna
oil
which
sacrifices con-
Two
For
" &i-a "Quant a Dhorme, ina E, 58. Jensen read ina KAN-&I-SA "nach dem plan; son enceinte;" Ungnad, "Nach dem Entwurf(f)"; Rogers ina KAN-sa sa "in its plan." The sentence preceding and the eight that follow all contain a verbal form, which, with the exception of line 59, are in the first person singular. The writer proposes the above reading.
KAN
If
it is correct, aS-Tcan
may
E, 60.
hull or
"Vorderbau;
because that
E, 66.
la-an Ungnad, Vordergestadt ", Dhorme "contours;" and Rogers, "hull." It seems to the writer that the word does refer to the " bottom, and that the root is very probably the Hebrew Fft "to lodge, pass the night;
Jensen
translated
"
"
is
The word
" and " outside (f)." Rogers Ungnad "den Schmelzofen(f) "wall." Hebrew "
E, 68.
' '
the part of the boat in which the people lodged. fci-i-ri is translated by Jensen "Innenraum;"
Jer 6:9 " KB VI 1 p 490) Amorite; cf. The root of u-pa-az-zi-rv, is the common Hebrew ")D "to gather, gather in, in Akkadian may concealed While the word puzru and pazrv, enclose. concealment, be from the same root, the verb with the above meaning was not in current use.
Su-us-su-ul-lu is (Jensen
-
niDD
' '
E, 70.
' '
' '
' '
76
as-gi-is
V-3
immere me * u-mi-sam-ma si-ri-[su ku-ru]-un-nu samnu u karanu um-ma- [no, as-qi] ki-ma me nan-ma
75 i-sin-[na as-ku-na] ki-ma u-mi a-ki-
and wine.
water
gave the
workmen
river.
to drink like
from the
[I
made
tim-ma
ap-t[e]
. . .
my
task
(lit.
laid
down my
e-lis
sap-lis
[mimma
i-su-u e] -si-en-si
mimma i-su-u e-si-en-si kaspu mimma i-[su-u e] -si-en-si-en-si mimma i-su-[u e-si-en]-si zer
napsdte
85
ia
hurasu
was opened wide, and The ship ropes ( ?) which they made, they installed above and below. their were With all that I had, I loaded it. With all that I had of silver, I loaded it. With all that I had of gold, I loaded it. With all the seed of life that there was, I
loaded
it.
me
ka-la-ma
I caused to go
sa-lat-ia
um-
up into the ship all my and relatives. family The cattle of the field, the beast of the
all of them, I caused to go up. Shamash fixed a time (saying), The muir kukki at even will send a heavy
ma-a-ni ka-li-su-nu
u-se-li
a-dan-na
amas is-ku-nam-ma
li-la-a-ti
u-sa-az-na-
an-nu sa-mu-tu ki-ba-a-ti e-ru-ub ana [lib]-bi elippi-ma pi-hi bob (elippa) -ka 90 a-dan-nu su-u ik-tal-da mu-ir ku-[uk-ki] ina li-la-a-ti i-za-anna-nu sa-mu-tu ki-ba-a-ti sa u-mi at-ta-tal bu-na-su
rain.
rain.
u-mu a-na
In
all
is
made
to refer to the
' '
ointment.
' '
It seems
an expression meaning, he finished the task. On e-si-en-si from the Amorite root 1VJJ see Chap.
;
I.
77
ship, to
Amurru
Buzur-
mim-mu-u
i-lam-ma
d
se-e-ri
ina na-ma-ri
is-tu i-sid
sa-lim-tum
Adad ina lib-bi-sa ir-tam-ma-am-ma 100 dNabu u d Sarru il-la-ku ina mah-ri
il-la-ku guzale mei
sadu-u u ma-a-tum
the appearance of the break of dawn, There rises from the foundation of the heavens a black cloud. Adad thunders in the midst of it. Nebo and Sharru go before. They go as messengers over mountain
On
and land.
tar-kul-li d Ura-gal i(u)-na-as-sah
il-lak dEn-Urta mi-ify-ra u-sar-di
d
the
onset.
The Anunnaki raise the torches. With their flashes they illuminate the
land,
ma-a-tum
sa
d
Adad
su-mur-ra-as-[su]
i-ba-'-u
same(-e)
e-[tu-ti] ut-tir-
[to
mdtu kima
ih-se(b [u])-
like
One day,
the deluge.
ki-ma qab-li
ul
u-ba]-'-u ....
Quickly it overwhelms, and [covers] the mountains. Like a war engine it comes upon the people.
im-mar
same(-e)
Brother could not see brother. The people in heaven did not recognize
each other.
ildnimeS ip-la(tal)-fyu
115
ildni mei
d
The gods fear the deluge. They withdraw, they ascend to the heaven of Anu. The gods cower like a dog they lie down
;
ma-a-ti rab-su
i-ses-si
in the enclosure.
woman
>
in travail.
it
E, 95.
The word
pi-fii-i is
the
Hebrew
HHS
an ^
is
seems that to
regard the latter as borrowed from the Babylonian piftdtu "district," as is a mistake.
generally done,
78
V-3
u-nam-ba
rig-ma
u-mu
ul-lu-u a-na
ti-it-ti
lu-u i-tur-ma
is
120 as-su a-na-ku ina pu-hur (ma-har) ildni meS aq-bu-u limutta ki-i aq-bi ina pu-fyur (ma-har) ildni meS
limutta
When
gods
spoke
evil in the
my
people, I or-
my
people,
tarn-
the sea.
ta-am-ma
125 ildnime* su-ut
ti-sa
ba-ku-u
it-
her.
they
[they
sit
weep-
kat-ma(sab-ba)
sap-ta-su-nu
Their
lips
are
silent;
huddle]
together.
The wind
tears,
pan mdtu
130 si-bu-u u-mu i-na ka-sa-a-di it-ta-rak (v. rik) me-hu-u a-bu-bu qab- la sa im-dah-su ki-ma ha-ai-al-ti
i-nu-uh tdmtu us-ha-ri-ir-ma im-hul-lu
When
an army.
sea rested
the hurricane
had spent
a-bu-bu ik-lu
itself,
And
to clay.
fell
E, 131. As already mentioned, fya-aja-al-ti is Hebrew; see Jensen KB VI 1 p. 498. E, 133. In the duplicate text ta-ma-ta takes the place of u-mu, showing that the latter should not be translated "day," as is done by all translators, but "sea" (= Q).
79
dur ap-pi-ia
il-la-ka di-ma-a-a
Over
I
my
countenance ran
my
tears.
looked in
terrible.
all directions;
na-gu-u
sadu(-u)
the twelfth day, an island arose. Upon Mount Niir, the ship grounded. Mount NLsir held the ship that it moved
not.
On
na-a-si ul id-din
u-ma sadu(-u)
One
it,
Mount
Nisir held
u-ma ri-ba-a u-ma sadu(-u) NiKi-Min 145 han-su sis-sa sadu(-u) Ni-sir Ki-Min
siba-a
held
third day, a fourth day Mount Nisir it, that it moved not.
that
it
moved
not.
When
il-lik
it
re-
turned.
I
brought out and released a swallow. The swallow went forth it turned
; ;
It
it
re-
a-ri-bi-ma qa-ru-ra sa
me
i-mur--
brought out and released a raven. The raven went forth it saw the drying
I
;
ma
155 ik-kal i-sa-ah-hi
u-se-si-ma a-na
i-tar-ri ul is-sah-ra
up of the water
It
approached;
it
it
waded;
it
croaked (?)
IV
I sent
offered a sacrifice.
eli
ziq-qur-rat
made
mountain.
karP at
VII u VII
E, 137.
kniete bin
a-da-guru uk-tin
' ' ;
Jensen translates "kniete neider;" Dhorme, "Je m'affalai;" Ungnad, "Ich ' I bowed. It seems to the writer that the root of vq-ta-am-mi-is may Rogers
'
' '
possibly be the
Hebrew t^J^
"
E, 142.
Poebel (ibid.
As sway, quake, tremble. the root is the Hebrew p^J ' to escape, ' cf Is. 59 19. Professor Torrey has kindly called my attention to the haf'el of this verb meaning "remove" in the two old Aramaic inscriptions,
' ' . :
"
p.
55) has already pointed out that the root of na-a-H is not n&iu "to it is a synonym of al&ku 2 R 35:50 e f, it seems to the writer that
namely the Zakir 11:20, and the Nerab Inscription 1:6, and 11:8, 9; see
JAOS
35, 363;
and
AJSL
33, 54
f.
80
V-3
erina
i-si-nu i-ri-sa
Beneath them I piled reeds, cedar wood and myrtle. The gods smelled the savor.
ildni meS i-si-nu e(i}-ri-sa ta-[a-ba] ildni meS ki-ma zu-um-be-e eli bel
niqe
The gods smelled the sweet savor. The gods like flies gathered about the
saerificer.
When
rived.
NIMmeS
rabute meS sa
A-nu-um
She raised the great jewel (?), which Anu had made according to her wish.
Ye gods
lace.
my
neck-
am-si
ume meS
ana
Upon
sur-qi-ni
forever I will not forget. Let the gods come to the offering.
Enlil shall not come to the offering;
deluge
And my
tion.
When
di-su
i-mur elippa-ma
i-te-ziz dEn-lil
He saw the ship then Enlil was wroth He was filled with anger against the
;
Igigi gods.
alive
No man
Enurta pa-a-su epus-ma iqabbi d izakkar(-ar) ana qu-ra-di En-lil man-nu-um-ma sa la dE-a a-ma-ti
ban-[nu]
En-Urta opened
his
He
i-
Who
without
Ea
com-
u dE-a i-di-e-ma ka-la sip-ri 180 dE-a pa-a-su epus-ma iqabbi d izakkar(-ar) ana qu-ra-di En-lil
at-ta abkal ildni meS qu-ra-du
matter.
of the gods,
war-
ki-i
ki-i la
Why,
why
kun
be-el hi-ti (ar-ni)
On On
the sinner place his sin ; the evil doer place his crimes
81
off
su-du-ud ai ...
That charity (
that pun-
li-sa-afy-fyi-
Instead of thy sending a deluge, Let a lion come and diminish the people. Instead of thy sending a deluge. Let a wolf come and diminish the people.
li-sa-
mdtu
lis-[gis]
Instead of thy sending a deluge, Let there be a famine and ruin the land. Instead of thy sending a deluge, Let Urra come and destroy the people.
I
me * pi-ris-ti ildni
su-na-ta
6*
u-sab-ri-sum-ma
Hani
is-me
caused Atra-hasis to see a dream, and he heard the decision of the gods.
take counsel concerning him. into the ship.
Now
i-lam-ma
Ea
200
ina
hand, and brought me up. wife he brought up, (and) caused to My kneel beside me.
Ea went up He took my
He
Formerly t)m-napishtim was a man, and now tJ m - n apishtim and his wife are
associates
;
lu-u
e-mu-u ki-i(ma)
ildnimeS
na-
si-ma
lu-u a-sib-ma fim-napistim ina ru-u-qi ina pi-i ndrati mei
pi-i
He
off at
took me, and caused me to dwell afar the mouth of the rivers.
F.
.
.
IN BABYLONIAN. 8
I will loosen
sa(?) sa(f)
.-ka
. . . .
Parallels 108f ;
Published by Hilprecht BE Ser. D V 1 33f It was also translated by Eogers Cuneiform and by Jastrow Heb. and Bab. Trad. 343f.
82
......
-ti
V-3
5 .... -a-ni
ma-la i-ba-as-su-u
lu--kin
ub-bu-ku lu pu-ut-tu hu-ru-su ...... i'elippa ra-be-tam bi-ni-ma ........ ga-be-e gab-bi lu bi-nu-uz-za
......
si-i
...... before the deluge comes ...... as many as there are I will bring destruction. Verily observe silence.
;
...... build a great ship and ...... the total height, shall be
;
its
struc-
ture.
lu
i?
magurgurrum ma-sum-
sa lu-na-si-rat na-pis-tim
.... n'(?) zu-lu-la dan-na zu-ul-lil
10 .... te-ip-pu-su
....
...... protect with a great cover. ...... which thou shalt make.
u-ma-am
......
beast of the
field,
fowl of the
heaven.
....
----
...... for a
After the death of Ardatos, his son Xisouthros reigned for eighteen sars in and the story has been recorded as follows.
Kronos appeared to him in his sleep and said that on the fifteenth of the month men would be destroyed by a deluge. He bade him therefore, setting down in writing the beginning, middle, and end of all things, to bury them in Sippara, the city of the Sun to build a boat, and go aboard it with his family and close friends to stow in it food and drink, to put in it also living creatures, winged and four-footed, and when all his preparations were complete, to set sail when asked where he was sailing, to say, To the gods, in order to pray that men
Daisios
; ;
; ' '
may have
F,
5.
7.
blessings."
He
five
10
furlongs
' '
F,
F, Texts
The root of bu-ru-su seems to be the Hebrew ^"Iff "to be silent, speechless. It has been shown that j-|2J| is the root of ga-be-e (see Hilprecht, BE Ser.
D V
p. 51).
8.
p. 61)
Poebel anticipated the writer in the rejection of the reading ba-btt (see Historical however, the ma which follows is not an emphatic particle, but the Hebrew
;
waw
7
conjunctive.
9.
Eogers correctly translated; "with a strong roof cover it." Schoene Eusebi Chronicorum Libri Duo Vol. I pp. The translation and notes here presented are by 20-24, except where differences are noted. colleague, Prof. A. M. Harmon of Yale University. my 8 Through ambiguity caused by indirect discourse, the Greek might almost equally well mean "When asked (by Xisouthros) where he was to sail, he (Kronos) said" etc. It was so taken
F,
The
by the author of the Armenian version. ' Gutschmid. vavmfyija'a.i rb A. M. H., i>avirr]yf)ffai>Ta Ms, pavTnjyfiffaffffai ' ' 10 fifteen. Gutschmid and Schoene follow the Armenian version,
' '
83
and two furlongs in width, assembled and stowed everything in accordance with the directions, and embarked his wife and children and his close
friends.
After the deluge had begun and had quickly ceased, Xisouthros let some of the birds go but as they found no food nor place to alight, they came back into the boat. Again after some days Xisouthros let the birds go, and they came back
;
muddy. But when they were let go for the third did not come back to the boat again. Xisouthros concluded that land time, they had appeared; unstopping some part of the boat's seams and perceiving that
to the boat with their feet
the boat had grounded upon a mountain, he disembarked with his wife, his daughter, and the helmsman and after he had done homage to the earth, built
;
an altar, and sacrificed to the gods, disappeared with all those who had disembarked from the boat. Those who had remained in the boat disembarked when Xisouthros and his companions failed to come in, and looked for him, Xisouthros himself they never saw again, but a voice came calling him by name. from the air, telling them that they must be pious, for because of his piety he was gone to live with the gods and that his wife, his daughter, and the helmsman had received a share in the same honor. He told them, too, that they would go back to Babylonia, and that it was fated for them to recover the writings at Sippara and publish them to men; also that the country where they were belonged to Armenia. On hearing this, they sacrificed to the gods and went by a roundabout way 11 to Babylonia. But of this boat that grounded in Armenia some part still remains there, in the mountains of the Kordyaioi in Armenia, and people get pitch from the boat by scraping it off, and use it for amulets. They went, then, to Babylonia, dug up the writings at Sippara, founded many cities, built temples, and so repopulated Babylonia.
;
Ms,
irefn
Schoene.
84
V-3
Kish
Ur Kingdom
1
2 3
Awan Kingdom
85
Kingdom
86
Las-si-ra-ab
V-3
Ur Kingdom
Si-u-um
21
Tirigan 21 kings
Uruk Kingdom
1
Utu-hegal
Nisin
B.C.
Kingdom
2357 Ishbi-Urra 2325 2315 2294 2274 2263 2235 2214 2209 2202 2201 2177 2174 2169 2165 2154
Gimil-ilishu,
s.
s.
Idin-Dagan,
Libit-Ishtar
Ishme-Dagan,
s.
Ur-Enurta
Bur-Sin,
s.
Iter-pisha,
s.
Urra-imitti
Sin(?)Ellil-bani
Zambia
....
Ea.
Sin-magir
Damiq-ilishu,
s.
PLATE
COL.
EARLY VERSION OF THE ATRA-HASIS EPIC A HEBREW DELUGE STORY IN CUNEIFORM (OBVERSE)
PLATB n
COL. VIII
395
445
IN
CUNEIFORM
(REVERSE)
PLATI
iv
PLATE V
IN
CUNEIFORM
(OBVERSE)
OF ORIGINAL)
PLAT
VI
IN
CUNEIFORM
IS
(REVERSE)
(REVERSE
DESTROYED)
OF ORIGINALS)
PLATf
VII
OF ORIGINAL)
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